Turkey, the only mainly Muslim country in NATO, should contribute more soldiers to the anti-Taliban campaign than the some 90 elite troops it is planning to send, an Afghan opposition envoy told AFP here on Thursday.
"The number of soldiers Turkey is sending is few. It would be better if Turkey sends more soldiers, because Turkey and Afghanistan are two old friends," said Elmurad Argoon, the ambassador of the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani, ousted in 1996 by the Taliban.
"Even countries like Denmark and the Czech Republic have assigned more troops" to the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan, Argoon added.
The appeal came as Rabbani, the internationally recognized leader of Afghanistan, held talks with Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in Tajik capital Dushanbe.
Ankara has not ruled out increasing the number of soldiers to be sent to Afghanisan, but officials have said that such a move was not being considered at this time.
When announcing its decision to send troops last Thursday, the government said the soldiers would contribute mainly to efforts to train the anti-Taliban forces and to humanitarian missions without, however, ruling out that they could also get involved in fighting.
Turkey, which enjoyed friendly relations with Afghanistan in the pre-Taliban period, has also expressed readiness to host a meeting of opposition groups as part of efforts to set up a post-Taliban government.
The meeting was originally expected to take place in Ankara in late October, but since then it has been surrounded by uncertainty.
Argoon said the problem lay in the failure of the camps of the Northern Alliance and former Afghan king Mohammed Zahir Shah to agree on the composition of the country's future leadership.
Other opposition representatives have also said that plans to set up a post-Taliban regime were losing steam due to the failure of the US air raids to topple the religious militia.
Argoon played down suggestions that the idea of opposition talks in Ankara could be completely dropped in favor of a gathering within Afghanistan.
"The meeting will definitely take place in Ankara, but the date is not clear yet," Argoon said.
The Afghan parties are expected to exchange lists of 120 people they have nominated to the so-called Council for National Unity of Afghanistan which they agreed to form in early October.
Both sides have hinted that the number could be raised to 250 on the council, which could initially appoint a replacement to the Taliban under emergency conditions.
Speaking after the meeting between Sezer and Rabbani in Dushanbe, a foreign policy advider to Sezer said that Turkey favored a broad-based government in Afghanistan, but without the participation of the Taliban -- ANKARA, (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
