The delegation representing former Afghan king Mohammed Zahir Shah demanded Thursday the exiled monarch be appointed as Afghanistan's head of state as well as the head of a proposed supreme council.
"His Majesty is the spiritual leader of the Afghan people and at the core of national unity," said Abdul Sattar Sirat, who is heading the king's delegation at power-sharing talks in Germany.
"His Majesty will be the head of the supreme council and head of state," he said. "The proposal of our delegation is the king must play a central role in the future of Afghanistan."
According to a UN blueprint, the supreme council is a 120-200 member body likened to a kind of parliament. Delegates here are also seeking to appoint a smaller, 15-20 member interim authority, similar to a cabinet.
"He will go, Inshallah (God willing), to Afghanistan when these are formed," Sirat declared.
The two institutions are designed to pave the way for a Loya Jirga, or traditional "grand assembly" of tribal elders, to be held in March or April next year.
Earlier Thursday, royalist delegate Zalmai Rasoul said an exact role for Zahir Shah, who was ousted in a coup in 1973 and has lived abroad ever since, had yet to be discussed with the powerful Northern Alliance delegation or with the two other smaller groups represented at the talks.
The 87-year-old king is widely seen as a unifying force in Afghanistan, a country that has been in a state of crisis or war since he fled to Italy, and the former monarch is also regarded as crucial to winning the support of majority ethnic Pashtuns in the south of the country.
The Northern Alliance on Thursday acknowledged Zahir Shah was "a prominent national figure", but has stressed his future political role should be determined by a local grand assembly -- BONN (AFP)
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