Overcoming much opposition from Delhi, Afghanistan went ahead and held the jirga and unanimously approved the decisions made in Tehran by the Afghan, Iranian and Pakistan representatives. The Pan-Afghan solution was approved by all the neighbors of Afghanistan in Istanbul and then endorsed by 62 countries in London. Delhi was the lone dissenter. Bharat’s underlings in Afghanistan Qanooni and Abdullah have been trying to sabotage the Pan-Afghan jirga which recently approved the strategy to talk to the Taliban.

All the obscurantists failed. The Afghan people have won. They are enroute to building a Pan-Afghan government of all sections of the society. This was proposed by

ANKARA: The foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan will meet in Istanbul next week for talks aimed at bringing the troubled neighbours closer, the Turkish foreign ministry said Saturday.

Zalmai Rassoul of Afghanistan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi of Pakistan will meet with their Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu Monday ahead of an conference on confidence-building measures in Asia, a ministry statement said.

Nato member Turkey, which has had traditionally close ties with both Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been pushing for the two countries since 2007 to overcome their differences and cooperate against extremists.

It has hosted four meetings between the Afghan and Pakistani presidents, accompanied by their military and intelligence chiefs, which have ended with pledges of to step up cooperation against extremists.

In Monday’s meeting, the ministers will share their views on progress in the trilateral process and steps to be taken in the future, the statement said.

In the last decade Delhi had tried to drive a wedge between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It had tried to form a close alliance with Mr. Hamid Karzai, but in the last elections it betrayed the Pakhtuns again and tried to back the Non-Pakhtun candidates in the Afghan elections.

President Obama has not been distracted by recent events or Delhi’s machinations. By 2011 the Americans will get a face saving exit from Pakistan and Afghanistan will left with the Pakhtuns–where is belongs. The inevitable Afghan-Pakistan union cannot be stopped.

KABUL: Afghan leaders wrapped up a landmark conference in Kabul Friday by demanding the creation of a powerful commission to implement a peace process after nearly nine years of war with the Taliban.

Some 1,600 delegates from across the political and social spectrum attended the three-day “peace jirga” in a giant tent and came up with a 16-point declaration in which they urged all parties to disarm and reconcile.

Although symbolic, the lasting impact of the jirga, which is a traditional Afghan gathering convened in times of trouble, remains unclear.

The Taliban were not invited, tried to attack the opening session with rockets and suicide bombers, and they have vowed to boycott any negotiations until the 130,000 US-led foreign troops leave Afghanistan.

Among highlights of the declarations was a call to remove the names of Taliban leaders from various anti-terror blacklists and removing preconditions for talks with Taliban leaders.

Burhanuding Rabani, the chairman of the jirga, told AFP, that the names included those of leaders Mullah Mohammad Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Other declarations called for the release of prisoners as a gesture of good faith, and references to the Taliban as “disaffected-affected brothers” instead of usual terms of “terrorists” or “insurgents.”

“Participants demand all involved in war… abandon war and brother-killing and, for a lasting peace in the country, accept peace and reconciliation,”announced Qiamuddin Kashaf, a deputy chairman of the jirga.

A peace process should be Afghan, but supported by the international community, with “a powerful commission or peace shura” or council established to implement a peace process and decisions of the jirga, Kashaf added.

Tribal elders, clerics, lawmakers and members of the opposition who have renounced violence should be on the shura, which “must establish a committee for addressing the problems of the prisoners, their release and reintegration”.

The United States and Nato are boosting to 150,000 the number of foreign troops in Afghanistan by August as they build up operations to beat back the Taliban from around their spiritual home of Kandahar in the south.

US President Barack Obama has said he wants to start drawing down troops from mid-2011, while Britain’s new government is keen to get out “as soon as possible”.

Jirga delegates were divided into committees to consider the specifics of a plan for the Western-backed President Hamid Karzai to approach militant leaders, including who and how, for talks that could lead to an end to war.

Although a number had demanded a timetable for US-led troops to quit the country and for their operational ability to be limited, neither suggestion was included in the final communique read to delegates.

Instead, the jirga called for the release of those “wrongfully” detained by Afghan and foreign forces, and asked the military to avoid bombardments that cause civilian deaths – a deeply sensitive issue in Afghanistan.

Karzai closed the conference with a speech, welcoming the declaration and promising to do his best to implement the delegates’ proposals.

“I listened to your resolution. It was comprehensive, perfect and righteous,” the president said. “This jirga will make our hopes come true, will achieve peace,” he said.

“You showed us the way forward. Now we will take this way. The way you set, the way you chose and set out. We will go that way, step by step.”In a nod to fears that social advances, such as in education or for women, could be compromised in any deal with the Taliban, the jirga said peace efforts “must not undermine” achievements made by the government or legal values.

It called on the government to take action against corruption, which infects every aspect of Afghan life and is a reason for the unpopularity of Karzai’s government; to create jobs, do development and boost the economy.

The US embassy in Kabul welcomed the jirga’s outcome.

“These discussions are the beginning of a process that we believe can help bring stability to Afghanistan and long-desired peace to its people,” the embassy said in a statement.

The United States has been cautiously favourable to reintegrating Taliban fighters who renounce Al-Qaeda, abandon violence, and commit to live by the laws of Afghanistan.