U.S. to open diplomatic office in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. flag will be raised over the reopened embassy in Afghanistan on Sunday, signaling a renewed American diplomatic presence for the first time in 12 years, the State Department said.

Ambassador James Dobbins, a veteran diplomat, will officiate at the ceremony, joined by a small number of State Department employees and a Marine Security guard detachment.

The mission will initially operate as a liaison office and will become a full-fledged embassy once diplomatic relations are restored. That will occur at some point after an interim Afghan government takes office on Dec. 22.

The flag that will go up on Sunday is the same one that was lowered in 1989, when the embassy was shut down amid the tumult in Kabul following the withdrawal of Soviet forces.

Officials said the flag has been kept at the State Department in the expectation that it would be used again when American diplomats returned.

The United States did not recognize the Taliban militia, which was recently driven from power by American airpower and northern alliance rebels. On Friday, hundreds of U.S. Marines occupied the airport at Kandahar, the birthplace and former stronghold of the Taliban.

Dobbins was in London on Friday for discussions on forming an interim security force.

Commenting on his new role, he told the Associated Press this week, "Based on experience, I expect setbacks and difficulties. But they haven't emerged."

Dobbins was in Bonn recently helping Afghan groups put together the interim government, to be headed by Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun tribesman.

Dobbins, a U.S. troubleshooter in Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo, with 30 years' experience in European diplomacy, will serve as the U.S. envoy at least through the installation of the new government.

He then hopes to fade away -- provided the operation goes smoothly -- and be succeeded first by a deputy ambassador and then a full-time U.S. ambassador.

The last U.S. ambassador, Adolph Dubs, was kidnapped by Islamic militants in 1979. He died in the cross fire in a rescue attempt by Afghan security agents. The embassy functioned without an ambassador until it was shuttered in 1989.