Int'l community to continue support for Afghanistan after 2014: UN envoy

KABUL, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- The top UN envoy for Afghanistan, Jan Kubis, on Tuesday said that the international community will continue to support Afghanistan after the withdrawal of the NATO- led forces by the end of 2014.

"Afghanistan will work, will develop ... with challenges, with difficulties maybe more than now but still will develop and the international community is ready to do everything what is possible to support Afghanistan," Kubis told reporters in a press briefing here.

Kubis made the remarks one day after the International Crisis Group (ICG) in a report suggested that Afghan government would collapse after some 100,000 foreign forces leave the country by the end of 2014, particularly if presidential elections are fraudulent.

The report by the Brussels-based group came days after Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that the presidential elections will be held on time in 2014, saying the foreign troops' withdrawal and insecurity will not suspend the elections.

The UN diplomat, who also heads the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), welcomed Karzai's remark on elections to be held in early 2014.

During an international conference on Afghanistan held in Japan in July, the donors pledged more than 16 billion U.S. dollars in development aid for Afghanistan through 2015, while the United States and its NATO allies also promised almost the same amount to support Afghan army and police after pullout of their troops. Enditem

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