October 25, 2001	Thursday	Shaba'an 7, 1422

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

RIYADH, Oct 24: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal is due to visit Pakistan on Thursday to discuss European proposals for a post-Taliban government in Afghanistan, a diplomatic source told AFP on Wednesday.

During his 24-hour visit, Prince Saud will deliver messages to President Pervez Musharraf from Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, he said.

Saud’s talks in Islamabad will focus on “the situation in Afghanistan and the political future of the country in light of the proposals presented by the Europeans to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday,” he added.

On Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who is on a regional tour, discussed with Prince Saud in Riyadh the “future political solution after the Taliban,” the ruling militia in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan has been the target of US-led strikes since October 7 after the Taliban refused to hand over Saudi-born Osama bin Laden to Washington, which holds him responsible for the September 11 attacks in the US.

“We agreed that there must be no power vacuum,” and that insofar as possible the solution should be an inter-Afghan one, Fischer said.

The German minister said they envisaged the exiled former king of Afghanistan, Mohammed Zahir Shah, playing an “important role” for a transition period.

Fischer said the United Nations should also support and accompany such a process, whose aim would be to establish an Afghan government “that does not support terrorism.”

Saudi Arabia had been one of only three states, along with Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, to recognize the Taliban administration in Afghanistan.—AFP