The Guardian leader on 18 April, written by David Hearst, who is a regular participant at ORG’s Liddite conversation events, comments:
“There is no dearth of creative ideas for an end to this conflict.”
Among the new ideas cited are proposals by ORG’s consultant and former UN Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs, Giandomenico Picco, for a 'minilateral process', engaging Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, China, the US, Saudi Arabia, and also NATO. Also cited is a contrasting view on the role of the UN on Afghanistan by David Miliband, the former British Foreign Secretary.
Based on his long experience working as a negotiator for the UN, Giandomenico Picco was one of the key players in the negotiations that ended the Iran-Iraq war, and in the Geneva Accords on Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in the 1980’s. Picco argues that the UN is not in a position to broker a peace accord and says:
“A 'minilateral' forum at two levels, intra-Afghan and regional, may offer an opportunity to change the paradigm of the political project for Afghanistan, and more. It may offer countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and others the chance to take on a leadership role rarely offered by history and not yet written; it may also help introduce a new dimension to the international discourse that goes beyond the 'existential' need for an enemy.”
A related ORG Op-ed by Giandomenico Picco is available here.
The discussion on Afghanistan is reaching a new intensity on how a political settlement can actually be reached, as David Hearst's Guardian leader describes. His piece also cites a contrasting view on the role of the UN on Afghanistan by David Miliband, the former British Foreign Secretary, who called, on 13 April, for a new UN envoy to be appointed by the UN Security Council to be responsible for regional engagement, as well as internal talks, with a medium-term goal of a Council of Regional Stability that oversees a compact between Afghanistan and its neighbours.
On the key role of politics there is now a strong voice calling for a political dialogue. David Miliband says: “A political settlement is not one part of a multipronged strategy in a counterinsurgency; it is the overarching framework within which everything else fits and in the service of which everything else operates.”
The importance of politics was also stressed by a senior British diplomat and UK Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan in a letter to a group of NGOs, including ORG:
“It is clear that neither the international community nor the Afghan Government will succeed in bringing sustainable security to Afghanistan by military means alone.”