Kabul Says It’s Set to Halt Fighting
The Soviet-backed Afghan government said Saturday it is ready to stop the war against Western-supported guerrillas and endorsed Friday’s U.S.-Soviet agreement to halt all weapons supplies to the warring sides by Jan. 1.
But radical Muslim guerrillas said they will continue fighting to topple President Najibullah’s government in Kabul.
Afghan Premier Fazlul Haq Khaleqyar has “expressed full readiness to ensure peace and cessation of the war as well as implementation of the Soviet-U.S. joint statement,” the official Bakhtar news agency said.
The agency said Khaleqyar made the remarks at an emergency Cabinet meeting attended by Najibullah, who called the accord an “important step for peace . . . .”
Two major guerrilla groups based in Pakistan welcomed the arms cutoff agreement, saying it would hasten the fall of Najibullah’s government.
But guerrilla leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar partly retracted Saturday a statement by his Hizb-i-Islami party expressing approval, saying the agreement contained a trick to bolster Najibullah.
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