January 23, 2009	Friday	Muharram 25, 1430

WASHINGTON / ISLAMABAD, Jan 22: Hillary Clinton, on her first day as the secretary of state, telephoned President Asif Ali Zardari and told him that the Obama administration was appointing a special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“It was a touch-base meeting,” said a senior diplomat aware of the conversation. “She felt it’s necessary to speak to the leader of a country that will continue to play a key role in the war against terror.”

But Mrs Clinton used this opportunity to inform President Zardari that she was appointing a special envoy, the diplomat said.

Former US ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, is being entrusted with the responsibility of looking after all diplomatic and political efforts for winning the US-led war against terror in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The United States had appointed a similar envoy for the two countries during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and the envoy played a key role in facilitating the US-backed resistance against the Soviets.

The US administration abolished the post after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan but the Obama team indicated during the election campaign that if elected, Mr Obama would appoint a special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

While previous envoys helped the Afghan resistance fight the Soviet-backed government in Kabul, the new envoy will help the Kabul government fight the militants.

The envoy will also work closely with Pakistan to help it fight the militants hiding in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Mr Holbrooke is the only person to have held the position of the assistant secretary of state for two different regions of the world and has been nominated seven times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mr Holbrooke achieved great public prominence when he brokered a peace agreement among the warring factions in Bosnia that led to the signing of the Dayton Peace Accord in 1995.

He was a contender in the replacement of Warren Christopher but ultimately lost to Madeleine Albright in 1997 when President Bill Clinton chose a replacement for the secretary of state.

Mr Holbrooke was an adviser to the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton and was considered a candidate for secretary of state in the new administration but the post ultimately fell to Senator Clinton herself.

The appointment of such a powerful diplomat as special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan underscores the importance the Obama administration gives to the region.

In recent hearings, both President Obama and Secretary Clinton said the war against the militants in these two countries was their first priority.

The Obama administration is also appointing former Senate majority leader George Mitchell as special envoy for the Middle East, another region of utmost importance for Washington.

AP adds: Saying anything short of a “relentless diplomatic effort” in the region will fail, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton introduced former UN ambassador Richard Holbrooke to be a special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Announcing the appointment, Clinton said Holbrooke’s challenge would be to coordinate US efforts in the region, including those of the Pentagon.

In accepting the post, Holbrooke noted that Pakistan and Afghanistan had different histories and traditions, yet find themselves inextricably intertwined.