Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Afgahnistan Ján Kubiš following a press conference on Wednesday said the Security Council confirmed the new mandate for both UNAMA and my mission but also for the whole of the UN family – the United Nations agencies, funds and programmes here in Afghanistan.

Ján Kubiš said, ” I am very happy that the Security Council took the decision unanimously. I would like to stress this because very often the Security Council is not able, not in a position to take decisions on certain issues and then, very often they are not unanimous decisions. With regard to Afghanistan, they simply agreed, all of them, on the mandate and it’s the necessary strength. So, I am very grateful that the Security Council came to this unanimous decision.”

He also added, “I would like also to inform you that the mandate was developed and prepared in close consultation and coordination, and with a very strong engagement of the Government of Afghanistan.”

UN Special Envoy for Afghanistan Ján Kubiš said, the mandate has clearly said that UNAMA will and should be guided by the principle of reinforcing Afghan sovereignty, leadership and ownership, and that we should continue to lead and coordinate the international civilian efforts.

Another part of the mandate is that we as UNAMA as the co-chair of Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board should provide and promote more coherence by the international community to the Afghan Government’s development and governance priorities, or that we in UNAMA should provide outreach as well as good offices to support the Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process of peace and reconciliation and work for confidence-building – all that within the framework of the Afghan Constitution, or that we should support at the request of the Afghan authorities, organisation of the future Afghan elections and strengthen support of the Government of Afghanistan’s efforts towards sustainability, integrity and inclusiveness of the electoral process and provide capacity-building and technical assistance, he said.

In response to a question regarding his stance about President Ahmadinejad’s statements who was asking for the quick withdrawal of international forces, Ján Kubiš said, “his Excellency the President expressed the position Iran as far as the presence of the international troops here in the country. We discussed this. I heard that what is important is delivering this message notably to Afghanistan and other partners in the region. There is perhaps two layers – that is the withdrawal of the international military presence now as it is happening. And it is the fact of life it is a transition process as such so there is no surprise.”

“He was mentioning more the issue of continuous presence of some military presence in Afghanistan in the post-2014 period. And again I referred to perhaps the need to consult these matters first of all with the Government of Afghanistan because Afghanistan is a sovereign country. And as a sovereign country it is for Afghanistan first of all to decide what kind of partnership agreements it would like to enter into. With whom Afghanistan would like to enter into these kind of partnership agreements, what would be the range, of areas and issues on which Afghanistan will cooperate with this or that strategic partner.” Mr. Kubiš said.

Author


  • Ahmad Shah Ghani Zada is the former Senior Editor of Khaama Press Agency who managed and overlooked the English edition. He is occasionally contributing stories to the agency.