Paris, 17 November 2006 – During a visit to the French Senate by a delegation from the Afghan Senate on 14 November, Jean-Pierre MASSERET (France, Socialist Group), President of the Assembly, met Sebghatullah MOJADEDDI, Speaker of the Afghan Senate (Meshrano Jirga). Jean-Pierre KUCHEIDA (France, Socialist Group), the Assembly’s Rapporteur on Afghanistan, also attended the meetings.

Mr MASSERET and Mr MOJADEDDI discussed the current situation in Afghanistan, with Mr MOJADEDDI speaking about the resurgence of the Taliban movement in several regions of the country. He explained that the problem was not just an internal one, but arose from the intervention of another country, namely Pakistan, which was providing the Taliban with support in the form of funding and weapons. In his view, Pakistan found it difficult to accept an independent Afghanistan over which it had no influence. This was one reason why Pakistan was reluctant to work towards peace and it was the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) that paid the price. The international community had to act to ensure that Pakistan put a stop to its destabilising activities so as to allow peace to be established in Afghanistan. Certain Pakistani representatives likened the Taliban attacks against the international coalition to a struggle to liberate the country from its foreign occupiers, a view which the Speaker of the Afghan Senate did not share.

According to Mr MOJADEDDI, in order to combat the Taliban infiltration, a dual course of action had to be taken: military operations supporting the work of provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs), combined with political dialogue. A special committee had been set up for that purpose a little over a year before. The efforts made had already been successful to some extent: approximately 3 000 Talibans and fighters from Gulbuddin HEKMATYAR’s Hezb i Islami movement had laid down their arms, and the process was continuing.

The Assembly is actively following the situation in Afghanistan. The Defence Committee’s Subcommittee on Afghanistan had visited Kabul from 16 to 18 March 2006 by way of preparation for the report on “European forces in Afghanistan: learning lessons” submitted on behalf of the Defence Committee by Jean-Pierre KUCHEIDA, Rapporteur (France) and Mehmet TEKELIOGLU, co-Rapporteur (Turkey). This report (A/1930), adopted on 20 June 2006, can be consulted on the Assembly’s website (http://assembly.weu.int). Recently, Josette DURRIEU, Rapporteur (France), also visited Kabul and her conclusions on the current situation will be included in her report on “Security and stability in Central Asia”, to be submitted to the Assembly’s forthcoming plenary session that will take place in Paris from 18 to 20 December.