NATO working for National Unity government in Afghanistan
Updates in previous story
Monitoring Desk—Kabul, Afghanistan: Major actors of NATO including United States and the European Union (EU) are becoming agitated over the current situation in Afghanistan where situation is becoming difficult after Run Off presidential elections as both candidates are not ready to accept election results and not reaching to any decision to make the situation normal.
Although Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani in the presence of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and United Nations officials in Kabul accepted such government today but observers believe that both leaders will not follow their contract with NATO in letter and spirit and new issues and demands will come from both soon and these demands will need further negotiations.
Speaking to reporters alongside Kerry in the Afghan capital, both Ghani and Abdullah promised to cooperate in speeding up an internationally-supervised audit of the disputed June 14 runoff vote. Ghani hoped that the process will be completed by the end of this month and the next president will be inaugurated to end political uncertainty in the country.
It may be mentioned that Ashraf Ghani won election in Run Off but Abdullah Abdullah is not accepting results while Ashraf Ghani is not ready to accept proposals of United Nations to resolve the issue.
EU Ambassador to Kabul Franz-Michael Skjold Mellbin expressed his dissatisfaction over the situation in his recent interview with TOLOnews —a local news agency. He believes that the best option for Afghanistan’s future is the National Unity government based on both candidates’ demands and agreements.
“I think it is the option that is on the table, I also think it is the only realistic option. Time is short now. The two candidates have agreed and they want to try to create this thing called the national unity government and they should focus on that,” he said. “There is not enough time to develop new political solutions to work outside that framework so they should remain focused on that”, Franz-Michael maintained.
Mellbin added that Afghanistan’s economic and political conditions have become more complicated since the start of the election process, emphasizing that the agreements between the candidates are important to avoid further complications.
“After the election’s difficult economic situations, difficult political situations, difficult security situations they [the candidates] can show their leadership today,” he said. “We cannot just hope they will show it tomorrow.”
Mellbin emphasized on the urgency of the country’s situation, asking the candidates to reach conclusive agreements as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, US diplomats are also indicating that situation is Afghanistan can only be normalized if both candidates go for National Unity Government without further delay otherwise Taliban will gain ground again.
Political history of Afghanistan indicates that Afghans never accept decisions from abroad for reaching any consensus among them and power tussle usually pushes Afghanistan to the brink of civil wars. Political observers claim that political standoff is in the favour of sitting Afghan President Hamid Karzai who will continue to rule the country if both candidates fail to reach and consensus.
