UN senior official meets presidential candidates, urges cooperation --- 11 September 2014 - To underscore the United Nations Secretary-General’s call for a successful conclusion to Afghanistan’s presidential election process, the world body’s Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, today paid a brief visit to Kabul, where he met with the country’s two presidential candidates, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai. -- “I was here to reinforce the message to the two candidates, on behalf of the Secretary-General, to please move forward,” Mr. Feltman said after his separate meetings with the two candidates. “And if there are things we can do to help them, we’re willing to do it; but this, obviously, is an Afghanistan decision about Afghanistan’s future.” -- The Under-Secretary-General stated that it is important, from the UN perspective, that the two candidates proceed with the political agreement for the government of national unity as it is “the best way to move forward,” in addition to following through on their public commitments to accept the audit results, which are expected to be announced in the next few days. -- “I will report back to the Secretary-General that, in both cases, Dr. Ghani and Dr. Abdullah, reaffirmed their commitment to try to get to a political agreement on a national unity government,” the UN official added. -- The Secretary-General spoke with the candidates by telephone on Wednesday. The previous day, in a statement, the UN chief emphasised that this is a pivotal moment for Afghanistan, and that genuine partnership will be required in tackling Afghanistan's many challenges. -- “Both parties share a real responsibility to guide Afghanistan to a peaceful and more prosperous future,” the Secretary-General noted in a statement, indicating that, given the scale of the challenges, this process can only be done jointly and with the candidates abiding by their commitments to enable Afghanistan's first ever peaceful transfer of power. -- In his interview, Mr. Feltman stressed that the United Nations will remain an active and supportive partner of Afghanistan through its political and security transitions and well beyond. “We want to find new opportunities to help support the vision of a unified, secure, stable, and prosperous Afghanistan,” he said. -- “You see greater financial deficits; you see growing insecurity in some parts of the country,” he said. “The best way to reverse this is to have the national unity government in place as quickly as possible, to start dealing with some of the major issues facing the country.” -- The Under-Secretary-General noted that he had recently attended a summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the United Kingdom, at which various stakeholders convened to discuss issues and reaffirm Afghanistan commitments, particularly financial ones. He described how both presidential candidates sent a joint letter to the NATO summit to describe how they share an inclusive political vision. - More, http://unama.unmissions.org/Default.aspx?tabid=12254&ctl=Details&mid=15756&ItemID=38315&language=en-US