Afghanistan, Pakistan Study Secret Plan to Break Impasse in U.N.-Sponsored Geneva Talks

The latest round of diplomatic talks on the Afghanistan war deadlocked Thursday, but U.N. mediator Diego Cordovez said both sides are considering his secret proposal to break the impasse.

The disclosure by Cordovez, an Ecuadorean who is a deputy undersecretary general of the United Nations, suggested that the next few weeks will test whether the Soviet Union has actually decided that the time has come to pull its more than 110,000 troops out of Afghanistan.

U.S. officials said they detected a new conciliatory Soviet mood on the Afghanistan issue at the November summit conference in Geneva between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

A few days before the start of this round at the Palais des Nations, the old headquarters of the League of Nations, John C. Whitehead, deputy secretary of state, said in Washington that the latest U.N. talks would provide the Soviets “with a forum to demonstrate their sincerity.”

Summit Effect Felt

Asked if the Reagan-Gorbachev summit had affected the talks that he mediated here this week between Afghan and Pakistani officials, Cordovez told a news conference: “There obviously was a good atmosphere. One thing came clearly. There was a definite determination to achieve a settlement. Perhaps the international atmosphere helped.”

Oddly, the foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan have not met each other since 1982, when Cordovez began mediating the first of the six rounds of talks. Instead, Cordovez meets privately with one delegation in one room and then confers with the second delegation in another room. The United Nations calls these negotiations “proximity talks.”

Because of U.S. suggestions that the Soviets now are more eager for an Afghan settlement, there has been more attention than usual focused on these talks. But in the end, they broke down on two related issues: setting a timetable for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan and arranging a procedure for discussing this timetable.

Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammed Dost insisted, as before, on meeting face to face with Pakistani Foreign Minister Sahabzada Yaqub Khan to discuss the Soviet troop withdrawal. But Pakistan regards the Afghan government of Babrak Karmal as an illegitimate puppet regime of the Soviet Union, so Yaqub Khan refuses to meet with Dost.

Procedure a Barrier

Cordovez said the two sides have been unable to resolve this procedural wrangle, and thus he decided to make his secret proposal. He said the foreign ministers would discuss the proposal with their governments and then meet again in late February or early March.

The U.N. official refused to say whether his proposal dealt only with the procedural matter of face-to-face talks or also with the substantive issue of troop withdrawal. But in response to a question, he said that his proposal might require him to travel to various capitals. He did not identify them.

Cordovez said that, while the two sides have agreed on several other issues, the question of Soviet troop withdrawal is a “key, critical, and central” issue.

On this matter, Cordovez showed optimism. “My own impression now,” he said, “is that on the substantive issue there has been a steady approximation of views.” He said that the Afghan and Pakistani differences on this are “the typical kind of issues that diplomats can negotiate.”

But these cannot be negotiated if the two sides are arguing about the way they should meet to negotiate, he said.

Hopes to Ease Distrust

“There is a wall of distrust that exists between the two sides,” Cordovez said. “My proposal is designed to dispel this distrust.”

Cordovez rejected the implication in one journalist’s question that the procedural issue is a phony one, designed to obscure the possibility that the Soviets and Afghans have no intention of withdrawing the troops now. The U.N. official, in reply, stressed the sincerity that he found in his mediation.

Despite the impasse, Cordovez insisted that the “proximity talks” had accomplished much. “The fact that people are talking--and they are talking through me--means that progress is taking place,” he said.

The Afghan war began six years ago when Soviet troops crossed the border to install the Karmal regime. Rebels, sheltered in Pakistan and supplied with U.S. arms there, have intensified their resistance over the years, and both the guerrillas and Soviet troops have suffered thousands of casualties.