Afghan President Insists on Role for His Group in Future Regime

On the eve of final efforts to reach a political solution to the Afghan war, President Najibullah on Thursday defiantly rejected demands by his Pakistan-based foes that he and his Soviet-backed People’s Democratic Party regime be excluded from any future government for this war-torn country.

“No one can ignore the existence of the People’s Democratic Party as a major power in Afghanistan, and it cannot be excluded,” Najibullah told a two-hour press conference.

As he spoke, a convoy of several hundred Soviet vehicles began making its way north from the Afghan capital toward the Soviet border, putting the Soviet withdrawal from the Kabul area into its final phase.

While the Soviet army makes its exit, Soviet diplomats appear to be preparing for a final push on a political settlement of the conflict.

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze is to arrive today in Islamabad, Pakistan, for talks connected with the Afghan issue, and Soviet special envoy Yuli M. Vorontsov, who is also his country’s ambassador to Afghanistan, is to go to Tehran today after an unexpected trip to Moscow earlier this week.

Najibullah said Thursday that the Soviet Union is fully representing Kabul’s interests in the current round of talks, but the sudden flurry has raised speculation about just what it is that Moscow might have to offer that could bridge the wide gap between the warring Afghan parties.

The diplomatic moves come as foes of the People’s Democratic Party government are trying to coordinate a shura, or traditional Islamic decision-making body, to select an interim governing arrangement.