Russian Foreign Ministry comments on Jirga opening in Afghanistan

Official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry (MID) Alexander Yakovenko told journalists on Monday that the Loya Jirga in Kabul, which has just opened, would lay a sound legal base for further progress in the process of state building and the formation of a responsible government in Afghanistan.

In his opinion, the future prospects for the creation of a stable political system and civil society in Afghanistan to a great extent depend on how the Loya Jirga takes the decisions to appoint a head of state and government.

Yakovenko stressed that the main guidelines to reach this decision should be UN resolutions and the Bonn agreements that call for guaranteeing a representative and multi-ethnic composition for the country's leadership.

The MID spokesman said that any attempts to change the situation in the country by force could lead to new unpredictability and the destructive consequences of a new outbreak of internecine conflict.

The Russian ministry believes that acceptable solutions to the Afghan problem should be found through a process of all-embracing political settlement, an inalienable part of which is the Loya Jirga