BAHRAIN: Afghan rebel leaders based in Iran have rejected an invitation to visit Moscow for talks with the Kremlin officials on finding a solution to the Afghanistan problem.

The offer which was made by the Soviet First Deputy Foreign Minister Yuli vorontsov during his recent visit to Teheran “was refused immediately” a spokesman of the eight party rebel coalition was quoted on Tuesday by Iran’s official news agency IRNA as saying.

Ali Jan Zahedi said the Soviet side this time showed “more flexibility during the talks and did not insist on the survival of the Kabul regime and the necessity of its participation in Afghanistan’s future government.

He ruled out any negotiations with the Kabul government and said their (rebels) only goal is to

over throw the criminal regime (of Dr. Najibullah) and to establish an Islamic government chosen by the nation.”

About the situation in Afghanistan he said that fighting between rebels and the government forces more or less continued as before and “we are waiting for an appropriate moment to inflict a major blow.”

He said the rebels did not consider the Kabul government guilty of being Marxist but for the crimes it had committed against the people of Afghanistan.

UNI Adds From Moscow

Hundreds of Afghan rebel field commanders have written to the US Ambassador in Pakistan that they no longer recognize the Mujahidden Government of the Pakistan based alliance of seven pravda said.

Their letter said that the so called interim government is illegal.

It also said that two important Afghan tribal leaders bad switched their allegiance to the Kabul Government along with their followers,

Meanwhile the Soviet General V. Varrenikov has said that even a coalition government in Kabul was not possible, the Najib Administration had enough armed potential to rebuff the rebels.

A report in the Red Star quoted the General as saying that the rebels controlled only 20 to 25 percent of the Afghan territory. The rest is firmly in the hands of the Najibulla government,” the General said.

The Soviet media also reported that Afghan Government troops on Monday repulsed another attack on Jalalabad.

Article extracted from this publication >>  June 2, 1989