Timetables Proposed for Soviets’ Afghan Pullout

Prospects for a settlement of the conflict in Afghanistan appeared to have improved Wednesday as the Afghan and Pakistani foreign ministers both proposed new timetables for withdrawing Soviet troops.

The proposals were offered as indirect peace talks resumed under U.N. mediator Diego Cordovez.

Afghanistan has been caught up in civil war for the last seven years. An estimated 115,000 Soviet troops are fighting alongside troops loyal to the Communist Afghan government. Pakistan is affected because millions of Afghans have fled across the border to refugee camps in Pakistan.

Cordovez told reporters Wednesday “there is only one blank space” in a four-part document that has been agreed to in every respect except for how long the Soviets will take to withdraw their troops.

“If they reach agreement on this point,” Cordovez said, “they have a settlement.”

Talks Over 4 Years

The talks have been going on, intermittently, for the last four years. When the last round ended six months ago, the Soviets were reported to have cut their withdrawal schedule from four years to two, and the Pakistanis were insisting on six months but hinting that they might accept eight.

Details of the proposals submitted Wednesday to Cordovez by the two sides at separate meetings were not made public.

Cordovez said the pace of the present round of talks might be slowed by the need for consultation with officials at home. He said they will go on “as long as is necessary,” adding:

“If there is an agreement on a timetable here, it does not mean that it will take effect at 6 p.m. It will take time to put into effect. An agreement will serve as a catalyst for a post-settlement arrangements scenario. If you work out a diplomatic agreement on a settlement, than you have to have accommodation to implement that settlement.”

No Internal Role for U.N.

He indicated that the United Nations will have no role in such matters as formation of an Afghan “government of reconciliation,” as Afghanistan’s Communist leaders are proposing, or in the organization of national elections.

The U.N. mediator appeared to leave wide open the question of when a Soviet withdrawal might actually get under way, regardless of what any timetable agreed to here might indicate.

Cordovez, an Ecuadorean who is an undersecretary general at U.N. headquarters in New York, said the four parts of the agreement will cover guarantees by outside powers, including the Soviet Union and the United States, of Afghanistan’s status as a neutral and nonaligned country; guarantees of noninterference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs, including a halt to U.S. shipments of arms to the Afghan rebels; arrangements for the safe return of 3 million or so Afghan refugees from Pakistan and Iran, and, finally, arrangements for withdrawing the Soviet troops.

Would Enhance Soviet Image

If there is agreement in this round of the talks, it would enhance considerably the new Soviet image being fashioned by Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, both domestically and internationally. He will have effectively turned his talk of being willing to get out of Afghanistan into a timetable commitment.

In the last three months, the Soviets have engaged in intensive diplomatic activity over Afghanistan. Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnazde visited Kabul in early January, and the Afghan government announced a unilateral cease-fire beginning Jan. 15. The cease-fire has been largely meaningless, but technically it is still in place as far as the government is concerned.

Meanwhile, Cordovez visited Kabul, Islamabad and Moscow in preparation for this round of talks, and the Afghan foreign minister, Abdul Wakil, and the Pakistani foreign minister, Sahabzada Yaqub Khan, have been to Moscow.

“Don’t write any obituary about the talks becoming deadlocked,” Cordovez advised reporters.

“It is simply too . . . slow. I have been dealing with two sides . . . and distrust is still there. But both have gone over every word of the settlement terms so many times that I have the impression now that both sides are comfortable with it, and only the timetable is to be decided. I have emphasized to both of them that we have reached a point of opportunity that must not be missed.”