The Afghan government on Monday appealed for international help to boost talks with the Taliban and other armed opposition groups. At a UN Security Council debate on the war-torn country, Afghanistan’s deputy foreign minister Jawed Ludin stressed the government’s determination to pursue reconciliation efforts despite Taliban attacks and assassinations. “We believe the process may benefit from the establishment of an office, within or outside Afghanistan, whereby formal talks between relevant Afghan authorities and representatives of armed opposition, including the Taliban, could be facilitated,” Ludin told the council. Afghan authorities recently put forward Saudi Arabia or Turkey as the best places to set up a Taliban liaison office abroad to enable peace talks to end the devastating 10-year insurgency.
The minister stressed the cooperation needed from Pakistan and other neighboring countries to overcome armed opposition groups. UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said meanwhile that the UN mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, will remain in the country long after the international military withdrawal scheduled for 2014. Ladsous said there had been a “relative” decline in security incidents in recent months though over the year so far there has been a 21 percent increase in incidents compared to 2010. The number of attacks in September, October and November is down on last year, Ladsous said, without giving detailed figures. It was hailed as “good news” but Ladsous added: “We mustn’t deceive ourselves. We have witnessed large-scale attacks over the recent weeks.” He said there had been nearly 800 civilians deaths in Afghanistan over the past three months.
