Word: afghanistan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Mikhail Gorbachev may finally get his way. Two months ago, the Soviet leader said he wanted to begin withdrawing the 115,000 Soviet troops mired in Afghanistan by May 15, but deadlocked negotiations in Geneva over the precise terms of the pullout cast doubt on his schedule. The snag was caused by Washington's insistence that the U.S. could arm Afghanistan resistance fighters as long as Moscow continued to provide military help to Kabul's Communist regime...
...Geneva talks were about to break down over that contentious point last week when Gorbachev decided to yield to the U.S. demand. Having won support from the Politburo, all that remained for Gorbachev was to secure agreement from Afghanistan President Najibullah, a former secret-police chief who is reportedly displeased with the Soviet pullout plan. Gorbachev summoned Najibullah to Tashkent, 200 miles north of the Soviet-Afghan border, where the two men conferred along with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. No details of the talks were released, but a Western diplomat in Moscow said, "I think it is a fair...
...smiles. A joint communique declared with notable finality, "The last obstacles to concluding the agreements have now been removed." It stated that the withdrawal of the first Soviet units could still begin on May 15. The next day, at the United Nations-mediated talks in Geneva between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the gloom of recent weeks lifted almost instantly. Diego Cordovez, the U.N. troubleshooter who has shepherded the negotiations for the past six years, emerged from morning sessions with Afghan and Pakistani diplomats and told reporters, "We have discussed; we have negotiated. That's over. I want to inform you that...
Shultz acknowledged that the removal of Soviet troops will not necessarily mean an end to the fighting. Once the Red Army is withdrawn, Shultz said, "then the people of Afghanistan have got to work things out. That's their right and their problem...Perhaps we can get to a period of at least relative stability...
...accord calls for the return to Afghanistan of millions of Afghan refugees, most of whom moved to neighboring Pakistan...