The World - News from Dec. 26, 1988

Afghan resistance leader Burhannuddin Rabbani met with Iranian President Ali Khamenei, who expressed hope for an Islamic government in Afghanistan, the official IRNA news agency reported. The visit to Tehran by Rabbani, head of a Sunni Muslim Afghan alliance based in Pakistan, follows talks earlier this month in Saudi Arabia between his group and Soviet officials. Meanwhile, the Soviet-backed government, in a statement broadcast on official Radio Kabul, said that exiled King Mohammed Zahir Shah could play a useful role in ending the 10-year-old Afghan civil war.