The head of the UN mission in Afghanistan said Thursday that it's “high time” a political solution is found with the Taliban to resolve the more than 8-year-old conflict. “It's time to talk,” Kai Eide said. In his last news conference as the UN representative, Eide said he hoped a spring peace jirga – or conference – that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is organizing would result in a national consensus for peace that the entire nation could rally around. In a wide-ranging news conference at the heavily secured UN compound, Eide said he has always been behind a policy of engagement, but has no allusions about the complexities of negotiating peace with Taliban leaders. He also said he would continue his push for electoral reform following Karzai's decree last week giving the Afghan the authority to appoint members of a formerly independent Electoral Complaints Commission. The panel, which monitors election fraud, was previously dominated by UN appointees, who uncovered massive fraud in last year's presidential election. Eide said he met with Karzai Thursday morning to ensure a fairer ballot during parliamentary elections this fall. “We have made some progress, for instance with regard to international participation in the Electoral Complaints Commission,” Eide said. He sounded optimistic about the ongoing negotiations but did not provide further details. Eide, a Norwegian diplomat, is stepping down after a two-year tenure marked by a deadly Taliban attack that killed five UN workers at a small hotel in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
