Military Aid Issue Holding Up Afghan Accord, Pakistan Says

Pakistan’s chief negotiator at the Afghanistan peace talks said Saturday that an agreement could be clinched if the Soviets would agree with the United States to suspend all military aid to the warring parties.

Acting Foreign Minister Zain Noorani said Pakistan has told U.N. mediator Diego Cordovez “that the texts of the four instruments (of an agreement) are now complete and that Pakistan does not seek any amendments or changes or modifications in the drafts.”

The indirect talks under U.N. auspices between Pakistan, which supports the Afghan guerrillas, and the Afghan government resume here Monday on a timetable for the pullout of an estimated 115,000 Soviet troops, international guarantees of the settlement and the return home of 3 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

Noorani said that since one of the last two divisive issues--that of a transitional Afghan government--appears to have been resolved in principle, “we feel that as soon as the two guarantors resolve the issue of symmetry, the instruments can be signed.”

By “symmetry,” he was referring to Washington’s position that it would be a guarantor of a settlement only if the Soviet Union stops military aid to the Kabul government at the same time the United States stops its military aid to the Muslim guerrillas.

Moscow has rejected this demand, arguing that its military aid to Kabul is an arrangement between two sovereign governments.

The United States contends that the Kabul regime, which is supported by a foreign army and does not control all Afghan territory, cannot be considered a legitimate government, but only one faction.

Noorani said that Pakistan’s concern about the formation of a broad-based transitional government in Kabul following the peace agreement “has been accepted in principle,” and that U.N. mediator Cordovez would initiate efforts in this regard in his personal capacity.

Pakistan had insisted that a broad-based transitional government would be needed in Afghanistan to ensure peace, and allow the refugees in Pakistan to return home, after the Soviet withdrawal. Moscow balked, saying this was outside the scope of the peace talks.