President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov made today an initiative to set up a new international mechanism to resolve the Afghan problem - "six plus three" under UN auspices, ITAR-TASS.
"We believe that the Afghan problem could be removed by creation of a Contact Group under the auspices of the UN, consisting of plenipotentiary representatives of the six states directly bordering Afghanistan, and Russia, the United States and NATO," he said, speaking at the SCO summit in Yekaterinburg.
"It is crucial to show full respect for the deep historical roots and ethnographic multi-ethnic people of Afghanistan, to all religions, traditional values of Islam, to make necessary consensus within Afghanistan on this basis and based on dialogue. And a new contact group would be a significant diplomatic advisory body, on the basis of which could be to seek the consent of both inside and around Afghanistan," he added.