Fact Sheet: The Kabul Conference

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The 2010 Kabul Conference, co-chaired by the United Nations (U.N.) and Afghan Government, took place on July 20. This conference is the ninth international conference on Afghanistan, but the first held within the country.   It was the largest gathering of foreign leaders in Afghanistan since the 1970s.

Envoys from over sixty countries and twelve international organizations were in attendance. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and Afghan President Hamid Karzai opened the conference, which was then chaired by the Special Representative of the Secretary General in Afghanistan Staffan de Mistura and Afghan Minister of Finance Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal.

The conference lasted about six hours and each delegate was given five minutes to speak. Iran did not attend the London Conference held in January 2010, which had undermined efforts to coordinate a regional reconstruction strategy.Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also attended the conference.

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