Russia and US to coordinate peace efforts

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said on Thursday that he and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had agreed to coordinate their efforts in the search for a political solution to the crisis in Afghanistan. Ivanov said he and Albright had “analysed the situation and shared their concern about the lack of progress in the political settlement of the Afghan problem,” while the country “remains a major source of international terrorism and drug-trafficking,” the Russian ITAR-TASS news agency reported on Friday. “We have agreed to coordinate our efforts and study additional measures that would allow us to push the Taliban towards a political settlement under the aegis of the United Nations,” Ivanov said. Ivanov did not exclude that an international “six plus two” conference would be held on the fringes of the UN General Assembly, the report added. The “Six Plus Two” group comprises Afghanistan’s six immediate neighbors: Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and China, plus Russia and the US. Among them, Pakistan is the only country which recognises the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan.