AFGHANISTAN: Afghanistan's long-awaited Loya Jirga opened yesterday with Mr Hamid Karzai, who is expected to be appointed head of state, assuring the assembly that former king Mohammed Zahir Shah would continue to play a role at the heart of the nation.
A dispute over place of the 87- year-old former king in the transitional government, which is to be selected by more than 1,500 delegates attending the Loya Jirga, had delayed the opening of the traditional gathering by 24 hours.
However, the political showpiece, held under a giant marquee outside Kabul, opened for a successful two-hour session after the former monarch defused the row on Monday by declaring himself out of the running for the top job.
After arriving at the assembly to a rousing welcome from more than 1,500 delegates, who clapped and chanted Allah-u-Akbar (God is great), the former monarch pledged his support for his close ally Mr Karzai.
"Dear Karzai has shown during this span of time qualities and efficacy, and I would like to declare that we support him and he is our candidate for the transitional period," he said. "I would like to wish him success."
Ex-king Zahir Shah, who spent nearly three decades in exile in Italy until returning to his homeland in April, reiterated that he had no interest in restoring the monarchy in Afghanistan.
Mr Karzai then took the podium and proposed that the former monarch be formally titled "Father of the Nation", move back into the presidential palace where he lived before his ousting and be given a series of ceremonial responsibilities.
In another show of unity, the Afghan Interior Minister, Mr Yunus Qanooni, told the Loya Jirga delegates that he would resign in the interests of the nation.
"For strengthening national unity in the country and for satisfying the Afghan ethnic groups, I would like to voluntarily resign from the interior ministry," he said.
Mr Qanooni is falling on his sword to break up an unpopular Northern Alliance factional monopoly on the three big ministries: foreign, interior and defence.
The alliance's appointment to the three key ministries under a power-sharing deal forged in Bonn last December upset other faction leaders, particularly ethnic Pashtun figures in the south.
Although the grand tribal meeting is now under way, many delegates are still seething over US pressure to force the former king to stand aside and have called for a walk-out to protest at the interference.
"A boycott is possible," said the Frontier Affairs Minister, Mr Amanullah Zadaran, a staunch royalist who said the former king came under intense pressure from the US envoy to Afghanistan, Mr Zalmay Khalilzad, to stand aside.
"I cannot lie, but I can say that Khalilzad came to the king's residence yesterday," he said, declaring that the king would now be urged to reverse his stand.
"We want him to stand, we will urge him to stand. That is our choice, the people's choice." Ex- king Zahir Shah's announcement was pre-empted on Monday by Mr Khalilzad who said the former monarch would clarify "that he is not a candidate for head of state or the government . . . and that he supports Mr Karzai's candidacy".
The US State Department insisted on Monday that the US had not taken a position on the former king's future role.