The Afghan government on Saturday welcomed Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide as the new UN envoy to Afghanistan, a role meant to better co-ordinate international efforts to bring development and head off a Taliban insurgency.
Eide's appointment, expected to be confirmed by the UN Security Council within the next week, brings to an end a tussle between the Afghan government and the United States and other powers that had wanted a heavyweight diplomat to boost co-ordination between UN and Nato forces fighting the Taliban.
"We look forward to working with Mr Eide," said Afghan presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada. "He has been the key person in the Norwegian government focusing on Afghanistan, so he has the knowledge of the country, he has the international experience and the backing of the United Nations and all the major players and the Afghan government supports his appointment," he said.
More than six years after US-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government for refusing to give up al Qaeda leaders behind the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, Nato and Afghan forces are still battling a virulent Taliban insurgency.
Frustration is growing among ordinary Afghans with the panoply of UN agencies, the more than 40 nations with troops in Afghanistan and the Afghan government over the lack of security, the slow pace of development and widespread corruption.
The Taliban said that because Eide had worked as Norway's permanent representative to Nato between 2002 and 2006, he would be a Nato commander in Afghanistan, not a UN envoy.
"The UN was established to ensure the rights of nations, but now this organisation supports one side in Afghanistan and wants to eliminate the other side. Therefore, the new UN representative, Kai Eide, will not achieve success," the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency quoted Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahed as saying.
"GREAT ADMIRATION" Washington had strongly backed British politician and former UN Bosnia envoy Paddy Ashdown's appointment as 'super-envoy' heading UN, Nato and European Union missions in Afghanistan. But the combined post was split up due to sensitivities over associating too closely the UN's humanitarian role and the EU's political role with Nato's military campaign.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai then vetoed Ashdown's appointment following media speculation about the extent of his powers and possible influence over the Afghan government. Eide, who at one time worked as a UN envoy in the Balkans, is known as an effective diplomat with experience in nation-building and dealing with Nato, but until now he did not have a high public profile.
Hamidzada said a number of names were floated for the job in consultations with the Afghan government. "We showed interest and great admiration for Mr Eide when his name came up," he said. Eide was expected to be approved as envoy by the UN Security Council ahead of a meeting on Afghanistan in New York on March 12 and travel to the Afghan capital Kabul to take up the post shortly afterwards, a UN spokesman said.