An international conference on Afghanistan to be held this week is a sign the world is still interested in the country, Richard Holbrooke, special US envoy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Monday. The meeting in The Hague Tuesday is a "signal that the world hasnt forgotten Afghanistan and now acknowledges that Pakistan is part of the issue," Holbrooke told reporters in The Hague.
He was speaking at a joint press conference with Dutch Foreign Minister Maxine Verhagen after the two had met for talks. "It is also a message to the extremists ... that they can give up," Verhagen added. About 90 states and international organisations involved in Afghanistan will be present at the conference, being held under the auspices of the United Nations.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in the Netherlands Monday afternoon, the Dutch foreign ministry reported. Earlier the United States had welcomed an Afghan Supreme Court ruling that he should stay in power beyond the constitutional end of his term in May and until elections in August.
Later Monday, Karzai was due to meet United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. Among those also attending will be US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Iranian deputy foreign minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh.
"The presence of Iran here is obvious," said Holbrooke. "How can we talk about Afghanistan and exclude a boundary neighbouring state? This is absolutely clear, the most logical thing in the world." But he would not say whether there would be contacts between the United States and Iran, which have had no diplomatic relations since 1979. "We will see, I cant predict... this is a work in progress."
Earlier this month US President Barack Obama urged an end to three decades of animosity in a message for the Iranian New Year Nowruz, in a sharp break the position adopted by his predecessor George W. Bush. Holbrooke said the conference marked the transition from the policy formulation phase to the policy implementation phase, following US President Barack Obamas announcement of his new strategy for Afghanistan on Friday.
The conference "is already a success," he said. "I want to underscore that we are in the region collectively because there are men in the region who pose a direct threat to countries and cities in the US and Europe," he continued. "The men who plan 9/11, who attack London or Madrid, who kill Benazir Bhutto and attack the hotels in Mumbai are still in the area of western Pakistan planning further attacks. The Taliban are their protective cordon." There was "a common challenge, a common threat, a common purpose," he said. "As long as the situation is not changing in Western Pakistan, you would have no stability in Afghanistan."
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