Afghan Leader to Hand Over Power, Spokesman Says
Embattled Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani is to announce plans next week to hand over power to an interim authority, a presidential spokesman said Sunday.
“The president is ready to hand over power to a person or a committee on the basis of an agreement of all rival factions,” the spokesman, Aziz Morad, told reporters in his office in the Presidential Palace.
He said Rabbani had acknowledged that the transfer of power should lead to “positive changes in Afghanistan.”
So far the main stumbling block to peace negotiations has been the question of whether a cease-fire should precede a transfer of power--the preferred option of the main opposition force, the Taliban Islamic rebel movement.
U.N. special envoy Mahmoud Mestiri had said Rabbani finally accepted that he must resign before a cease-fire, but Morad denied that the president’s views had changed.
Neither the Taliban nor the other main opposition coalition, the Supreme Coordination Council, has commented on the government’s remarks.
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