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Soviets Say Way Open to Afghan Pact : See May 15 Start of Troop Pullout With Geneva Settlement
April 08, 1988|CHARLES P. WALLACE and TYLER MARSHALL | Times Staff Writers
MOSCOW — Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Afghan President Najibullah announced Thursday that they have cleared away the "last obstacles" to a peace agreement on Afghanistan, allowing the Soviets to start withdrawing their troops there next month.
If an accord is signed soon in Geneva, where peace talks have stalled on the question of U.S. and Soviet arms supplies to Afghanistan, then Moscow on May 15 will begin withdrawing its estimated 115,000 troops, the two leaders said in a statement issued in the Soviet Central Asian city of Tashkent.
The Soviets have been pressing to begin the withdrawal in advance of the summit meeting between Gorbachev and President Reagan in Moscow beginning May 29.
Gorbachev 'Certain' of Pact
Tass, the Soviet news agency, quoted Gorbachev as saying: "There is certain to be a signed agreement on political normalization. I think both Pakistan and Afghanistan will come to agreement and that we and the Americans will agree to be guarantors."
Pakistan is involved in the talks because about 3 million Afghans have fled the fighting and taken refuge in the neighboring country.
In Geneva, official sources indicated that formal announcement of a settlement could come as early as today.
"I think the situation will be clear," said a United Nations official who asked not to be identified. "There's a certain amount of technical work that has to be done, texts that have to be checked. . . . Each minister has to sign 50 times."
He said the delegations are still consulting and that "all the parties are being very careful."
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley said the United States "noted with great interest the Tass statement. . . . We, too, hope that rapid progress can be made in concluding the Geneva accords."
'Symmetry' on Military Aid
The United States told the Soviets last month that it would not guarantee the peace agreement unless Moscow would accept the principle of "symmetry" in connection with military aid to the rival factions in Afghanistan--Najibullah's Soviet-backed government, on the one hand, and the U.S.-backed rebels on the other.
Oakley said the United States has not yet received a formal response from the Soviet Union to the American proposals for an agreement. Until the Soviet reply is received, she said, "We must reserve judgment."
A spokesman for the Soviet Foreign Ministry, Gennady I. Gerasimov, said the dispute over military aid was one of the obstacles that has been overcome, but neither he nor the statement issued in Tashkent spelled out how the stalemate had been resolved.
Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq said Thursday in a speech to Parliament in Islamabad that both the United States and the Soviet Union had decided to continue supplying arms to the respective sides.
Zia, who conferred Wednesday with Secretary of Defense Frank C. Carlucci and Assistant Secretary of State Michael H. Armacost, said that now he could sign a peace accord with no reluctance.
A senior member of the Pakistani delegation to the Geneva talks said, "We're awaiting a call to go to the Palais des Nations (site of the talks)." Because Pakistan has refused to recognize the Kabul government, a regime it views as a Soviet puppet, the negotiations have been conducted indirectly, rather than face to face.
Meanwhile, guerrillas representing the seven groups that make up the Afghan resistance based in Pakistan said they could not accept the peace agreement and that they will continue to fight.
Diplomats in Moscow said it was significant that the Tashkent statement quoted Najibullah as welcoming the readiness of the Soviet Union and the United States to act as guarantors of the Geneva agreement. They said this strongly indicates that both sides expect the accord to be signed.
Half to Go Within 3 Months
The Soviet Union has said that if the peace accords were signed it would withdraw half its troops within three months beginning May 15 and complete the pullout within nine months.
Nikolai Kozyrev, a Soviet ambassador taking part in the Geneva talks, echoed Gorbachev's optimistic statement. After meeting with U.N. mediator Diego Cordovez, who has been presiding over the talks, Kozyrev told reporters, "I think soon you will have good news."
Earlier in the day, Cordovez sought to dampen speculation that a settlement had been reached.
"It is a difficult time," he said. "There are very difficult decisions. The only good thing that is important is that the political will is obviously there."
The end of the Afghan conflict has been a major policy goal for Gorbachev, who announced on Feb. 8 his desire to withdraw Soviet troops. The Soviets, under Leonid I. Brezhnev, moved into Afghanistan in December, 1979, in order to prop up a faltering Marxist regime there. The occupation proved to be a drain on Soviet resources and morale, however, and Gorbachev has described it as a "festering wound."
4.5 Million Refugees
Soviets Say Way Open to Afghan Pact : See May 15 Start of Troop Pullout With Geneva Settlement
April 08, 1988|CHARLES P. WALLACE and TYLER MARSHALL | Times Staff Writers
MOSCOW — Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Afghan President Najibullah announced Thursday that they have cleared away the "last obstacles" to a peace agreement on Afghanistan, allowing the Soviets to start withdrawing their troops there next month.
If an accord is signed soon in Geneva, where peace talks have stalled on the question of U.S. and Soviet arms supplies to Afghanistan, then Moscow on May 15 will begin withdrawing its estimated 115,000 troops, the two leaders said in a statement issued in the Soviet Central Asian city of Tashkent.
The Soviets have been pressing to begin the withdrawal in advance of the summit meeting between Gorbachev and President Reagan in Moscow beginning May 29.
Gorbachev 'Certain' of Pact
Tass, the Soviet news agency, quoted Gorbachev as saying: "There is certain to be a signed agreement on political normalization. I think both Pakistan and Afghanistan will come to agreement and that we and the Americans will agree to be guarantors."
Pakistan is involved in the talks because about 3 million Afghans have fled the fighting and taken refuge in the neighboring country.
In Geneva, official sources indicated that formal announcement of a settlement could come as early as today.
"I think the situation will be clear," said a United Nations official who asked not to be identified. "There's a certain amount of technical work that has to be done, texts that have to be checked. . . . Each minister has to sign 50 times."
He said the delegations are still consulting and that "all the parties are being very careful."
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley said the United States "noted with great interest the Tass statement. . . . We, too, hope that rapid progress can be made in concluding the Geneva accords."
'Symmetry' on Military Aid
The United States told the Soviets last month that it would not guarantee the peace agreement unless Moscow would accept the principle of "symmetry" in connection with military aid to the rival factions in Afghanistan--Najibullah's Soviet-backed government, on the one hand, and the U.S.-backed rebels on the other.
Oakley said the United States has not yet received a formal response from the Soviet Union to the American proposals for an agreement. Until the Soviet reply is received, she said, "We must reserve judgment."
A spokesman for the Soviet Foreign Ministry, Gennady I. Gerasimov, said the dispute over military aid was one of the obstacles that has been overcome, but neither he nor the statement issued in Tashkent spelled out how the stalemate had been resolved.
Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq said Thursday in a speech to Parliament in Islamabad that both the United States and the Soviet Union had decided to continue supplying arms to the respective sides.
Zia, who conferred Wednesday with Secretary of Defense Frank C. Carlucci and Assistant Secretary of State Michael H. Armacost, said that now he could sign a peace accord with no reluctance.
A senior member of the Pakistani delegation to the Geneva talks said, "We're awaiting a call to go to the Palais des Nations (site of the talks)." Because Pakistan has refused to recognize the Kabul government, a regime it views as a Soviet puppet, the negotiations have been conducted indirectly, rather than face to face.
Meanwhile, guerrillas representing the seven groups that make up the Afghan resistance based in Pakistan said they could not accept the peace agreement and that they will continue to fight.
Diplomats in Moscow said it was significant that the Tashkent statement quoted Najibullah as welcoming the readiness of the Soviet Union and the United States to act as guarantors of the Geneva agreement. They said this strongly indicates that both sides expect the accord to be signed.
Half to Go Within 3 Months
The Soviet Union has said that if the peace accords were signed it would withdraw half its troops within three months beginning May 15 and complete the pullout within nine months.
Nikolai Kozyrev, a Soviet ambassador taking part in the Geneva talks, echoed Gorbachev's optimistic statement. After meeting with U.N. mediator Diego Cordovez, who has been presiding over the talks, Kozyrev told reporters, "I think soon you will have good news."
Earlier in the day, Cordovez sought to dampen speculation that a settlement had been reached.
"It is a difficult time," he said. "There are very difficult decisions. The only good thing that is important is that the political will is obviously there."
The end of the Afghan conflict has been a major policy goal for Gorbachev, who announced on Feb. 8 his desire to withdraw Soviet troops. The Soviets, under Leonid I. Brezhnev, moved into Afghanistan in December, 1979, in order to prop up a faltering Marxist regime there. The occupation proved to be a drain on Soviet resources and morale, however, and Gorbachev has described it as a "festering wound."
4.5 Million Refugees
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