Posted on 06/11/2002 2:13:25 AM PDT by HAL9000
Loya Jirga will be probably again pushed back
Tuesday June 11, 2002 - 8h29 GMT
KABUL, June 11 (AFP) - the opening envisaged Tuesday of Loya Jirga, the traditional assembly which must indicate a new government in Afghanistan, will be probably again delayed one day, because of the continuation of the polemic on the role that will have to play former king Mohammed Zaher Shah, said a person in charge to the AFP.
"We doubt that it (Loya Jirga) is held today because the partisans of the king are upset by (play) that (the American emissary for Afghanistan Zalmay) Khalilzad played", declared a member of the Steering Committee of the assembly having required anonymity.
Interrogations and criticisms emerged on the American attitude after Zalmay Khalilzad had convened a press conference Monday in Kabul to affirm before the former monarch himself that Zaher Shah was not candidate with the post of the head of the State.
"the king himself should speak to us and it should say to us which are its intentions", the person in charge for the Steering Committee of Loya Jirga added.
The brother-in-law of the former king, Homayoun Assefy Shah, showed the United States to have exerted "strong pressures" on Zaher Shah so that it is withdrawn.
The State Department (Ministry for Foreign Affairs) American A, on its side, stated Monday not to have a position on the precise political role that the former king should play, deposited in 1973.
Rabbani bows out as candidate for head of state at loya jirga, endorses Karzai
KABUL, Afghanistan, Jun 11, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Former President Burhaunddin Rabbani bowed out Tuesday as a candidate for head of state during the upcoming grand council and endorsed the current interim leader Hamid Karzai.
"I am proposing Chairman Karzai as the sole candidate before the loya jirga," Rabbani told reporters before the opening session of the loya jirga was to convene.
Rabbani's announcement removes the last major challenge to Karzai. On Monday, former king Mohammad Zaher Shah also announced he would not stand for the post and threw his support to Karzai.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
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