Norway condemns assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani

“I strongly condemn the attack in which Burhanuddin Rabbani and several others were killed. This was not just an attack on Mr Rabbani and his colleagues, but a serious assault on the Afghan Government and the ongoing stabilisation efforts,” said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. 

The head of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council and former president of Afghanistan, Burhanuddin Rabbani, was killed in a suicide bombing today in his own home in Kabul. As head of the High Peace Council, Mr Rabbani had been appointed by President Karzai to lead the reconciliation process with the Taliban and other insurgent groups. 

“I met Mr Rabbani this summer when he took part in the Oslo Forum mediators’ retreat, where the status of the reconciliation process was one of the topics discussed. The attack is bound to have an impact on this important work. But the assassination does not alter the fact that it is essential to find a political solution to the conflict in Afghanistan that also involves neighbouring countries. We must not allow ourselves to falter, but must keep up our unremitting efforts,” said Mr Støre.