Afghan Foes Reportedly Agree to Share Power

The leaders of Afghanistan’s two main factions reportedly agreed Wednesday to share power in their shattered homeland for 18 months, then hold elections.

Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani and his rival, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, met for the first time since the Marxist government in Kabul fell last April.

Since then, they have battled for control of their homeland. In a struggle for the capital alone, rebel chiefs have rained thousands of rockets on Kabul, killing an estimated 5,000 people, wounding countless more and flattening entire neighborhoods.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan called the chiefs of Afghanistan’s factions to Islamabad on Monday to try to mediate an end to their bitter feuding.

Pakistan delivered billions of dollars in military assistance--much of it from the United States--to the groups when they were fighting the Soviet-backed government in Kabul.

In announcing the power-sharing agreement, Sharif said that “all sides have shown flexibility” in the talks.

Rabbani, who had been scheduled to return to Kabul on Wednesday, extended his visit another day in hopes the agreement can be signed by all factions before he leaves, said the president’s spokesman, Mohammed Aziz Murad.

Murad said that under the power-sharing agreement, Rabbani would remain as president and Hekmatyar would be prime minister. Rabbani’s spokesman said the president and Hekmatyar also agreed to choose government ministers together.

The agreement still must be ratified by leaders of all 10 Muslim groups that ousted the Communists after a 14-year civil war.

Hekmatyar, who is believed to have influence over the smaller factions, was not immediately available for comment.

“Hopefully, the war and fighting in Afghanistan will end very soon,” Sharif said.

The Afghan leaders agreed Tuesday to a cease-fire but refused to say when or how it would be implemented. They also agreed to withdraw their heavy weapons out of range of Kabul and put them under the control of a central military command.