The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Top Afghan negotiator cautiously optimistic on peace prospects
- Top Afghan negotiator cautiously optimistic on peace prospects
- U.N. chief names East Timor's Ramos-Horta envoy to Guinea-Bissau
| Top Afghan negotiator cautiously optimistic on peace prospects Posted: 31 Dec 2012 07:54 PM PST KABUL (Reuters) - One of Afghanistan's top peace negotiators said he was cautiously optimistic about prospects for reconciliation with the Taliban and that all sides now realised a military solution to the war was not possible. Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai also told Reuters that the Kabul government hoped to transform the Afghan Taliban into a political movement. He predicted the highly lethal Haqqani militant network would join the peace process if the Afghan Taliban started formal talks.
Signs are emerging that the Afghan government is gaining momentum in its drive to persuade the Taliban to lay down their arms before most NATO combat troops pull out by the end of 2014, a timeline that makes many Afghans nervous. Pakistan, long accused of supporting Afghan insurgents such as the Taliban, has sent the strongest signals yet that it will deliver on promises of helping the Kabul government and the United States bring stability to its neighbour. Stanekzai, also a close aide to President Hamid Karzai, expressed cautious optimism about prospects for peace. Members of the Afghan government, the Taliban and some of its old enemies in the Northern Alliance discussed ways of easing the conflict during a recent meeting in France. "I think one consensus was that everybody acknowledged that nobody will win by military (means). Everybody acknowledged that we have to enter into a meaningful negotiation," he said in a rare interview. (Reporting by Michael Georgy and Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Nick Macfie) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Top Afghan negotiator cautiously optimistic on peace prospects Posted: 31 Dec 2012 07:39 PM PST
KABUL (Reuters) - One of Afghanistan's top peace negotiators said he was cautiously optimistic about prospects for reconciliation with the Taliban and that all sides now realised a military solution to the war was not possible. Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai also told Reuters that the Kabul government hoped to transform the Afghan Taliban into a political movement. He predicted the highly lethal Haqqani militant network would join the peace process if the Afghan Taliban started formal peace talks. (Reporting by Michael Georgy and Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Nick Macfie) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| U.N. chief names East Timor's Ramos-Horta envoy to Guinea-Bissau Posted: 31 Dec 2012 06:51 PM PST UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday named Nobel Peace prize laureate and former president of East Timor, Jose Ramos-Horta, as his special representative to Guinea-Bissau, a West African nation that has become a narcotics hub. Ramos-Horta will assume the post once the current envoy in Guinea-Bissau, Joseph Mutaboba of Rwanda, completes his term on January 31, 2013, the United Nations said in a statement.
Cocaine trafficking through drug hub Guinea-Bissau is spreading unabated amid turmoil sparked by an April military coup that has slashed the country's key cashew crop and almost halved its economic growth, the United Nations said in a report to the U.N. Security Council earlier this year. Ramos-Horta survived an assassination attempt in 2008. He shared the Nobel prize in 1996 for working toward a peaceful solution to the East Timor conflict and his key role in the country's movement for independence from Indonesia. Ramos-Horta was president of East Timor from 2007 to 2012. He lost a re-election bid earlier this year. (Reporting By Louis Charbonneau; editing by Todd Eastham) Copyright © 2013 Reuters |
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