14 November 2001

UN Security Council Preparing a Resolution on Afghanistan

United Nations -- In an attempt to keep up with events on the ground in Afghanistan, the UN Security Council was working throughout the day November 14 on the final details of a British and French sponsored resolution giving support to the UN efforts to help the Afghan parties map out a political transition to replace the vacuum left by the fall of the Taliban regime.

Talking with journalists during a break in the negotiations November 14, British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said that the resolution will support the work of UN special representative Lakhdar Brahimi and "set broad parameters for what we think the next stage in Afghanistan should bring."

"This will be a resolution that deals with the next stage and the general arrangements needed for humanitarian aid, security and longer term reconstruction," as well as showing very strong support for the UN special representative, said Greenstock.

The elements of the resolution were distilled from the comments made by more than 25 Foreign Ministers during a public Security Council meeting on Afghanistan November 13.

The Council was prepared to work through the evening of November 14 in order to pass the resolution so that Brahimi can proceed with the plan he outlined to the Council. In the meantime Brahimi's assistant, Francesc Vandrell, is preparing to go into Afghanistan. UN officials expect Vendrell will be able to enter Kabul by November 17.

Brahimi said that he wants to convene a meeting as soon as possible with representatives of the Northern Alliance and other Afghan groups from both inside and outside Afghanistan to work on a framework for a process of political transition. The UN hopes that the meeting can be held in the region, but UN officials said that Vienna and Geneva are also possible sites for such a gathering.

The resolution will not deal with security arrangements such as peacekeeping units for Kabul, the British Ambassador said. "The security arrangements will evolve. They will not be imposed or mandated at this stage in any detail.

"We're working with events that surprised all of us with their speed of action," said Greenstock. "The important thing -- we all will agree on this -- is that responsible Afghans should lead. Secondly that the international community should help."

"First of all we want order, we want standards to be upheld, we want humanitarian aid to come in, we want the people to feel comfortable with the evolution," Greenstock said.

"If we can encourage that process and Brahimi can have a meeting of a representative group outside the country that is then willing to move inside the country for take over administration....then we are getting somewhere," the UK Ambassador said.

"Don't think of classic UN peacekeeping operations and don't think of an early mandate to authorize an international coalition of the kind we put into East Timor, the Balkans, let alone the Gulf War," he told journalists.