US Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Afghanistan today on an unannounced visit to press the country's two feuding presidential candidates on the urgency of ending a bitter dispute over June elections and forming a new government by early September.
Kerry's visit comes as the election results are being audited in a process that he brokered last month. Senior officials travelling with Kerry said the US wants to see the ultimate winner inaugurated and a new "chief executive officer" chosen by the loser under the terms of a national unity government compromise before the upcoming NATO summit in Wales Sept 4.
At that summit, NATO leaders are hoping to make decisions about their nations' role in Afghanistan after the end of the year, when most combat troops will be withdrawn.
Kerry's arrival in Kabul follows Tuesday's killing of a US general by an Afghan soldier at the national defense university, an incident that underscored the tensions that persist as the US combat role winds down. The political uncertainty that Kerry is trying to address is another complicating factor in the transition.
Kerry planned to meet both candidates former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai today night and then meet with current Afghan President Hamid Karzai before he leaves tomorrow for an Asian security conference in Myanmar.
The audit of ballots from the June 14 presidential runoff resumed Monday after a holiday break and is still likely to take weeks to complete.
Preliminary results showed Ghani Ahmadzai well ahead of Abdullah, but both sides alleged fraud.
Faced with the prospect of the two sides clashing amid bitter disputes over the vote tallies, Kerry made an emergency visit to Kabul and persuaded the two sides to agree to a full audit of the ballots.
Kerry has spoken by phone several times with Abdullah and Ghani Ahmadzai since, urging them to continue to support the electoral process and a framework for a national unity government agreed to during his last visit.
