NEW YORK: International negotiations on the shape of a post-Taliban agreement are lagging far behind military developments. The US, Britain and their allies have been trying for some time to organize a conference of Afghan political and ethnic leaders under the figurehead chairmanship of Zahir Shah. The meeting has failed to materialize because of frictions among rival Afghan groups and Afghanistan’s neighbours.

Key among the questions facing the international mediators will be the future of Kabul. The option, being pushed strongly by the US, is for Kabul to become an “open city” which would be demilitarized. The US is afraid that the Northern Alliance’s military victories over the past few days could undermine hopes of getting Afghanistan’s Pakhtoon community, to join a broad-based government.

There is uncertainty over what kind of security can be offered to the traumatized people of Kabul. One idea is for an ethnically representative all-Afghan security force, though this is hard to envisage given the long rivalry among Afghan groups and their frequent switches of loyalty, with today’s allies shooting at each other tomorrow.

Progress towards a new government has barely advanced in the five weeks since the US launched its airstrikes. Diplomats express disappointment with the former king for not having taken a firmer lead. He is still seen as a “rallying point” and someone who can “confer legitimacy” on a new government, but diplomats have given up hope of him taking an executive role.

A meeting of the king’s supporters along with various Pakhtoon tribal leaders two weeks ago failed to provide a serious list of names for a new government. The fall of Mazar-i-Sharif and the new fluidity of the military scene have not brought any progress. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service.