FRANCE: General David Petraeus NATO's top general in Afghanistan says Afghan forces can make 2014 security handover

Record ID: 559677

  • Title: FRANCE: General David Petraeus NATO's top general in Afghanistan says Afghan forces can make 2014 security handover
  • Date: 24th November 2010
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (NOVEMBER 23, 2010) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF SCIENCES PO, A TOP FRENCH COLLEGE
  • Embargoed: 9th December 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France, France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA3ZY52LOBEVIJGYAHTAI5WHWCA
  • Story Text: NATO's top general in Afghanistan on Tuesday (November 23) said Afghan forces were up to the job of taking on responsibility for the country's security and that he was confident they would meet the 2014 deadline for the handover of security operations to Afghan forces which could pave the way for an end to combat missions.
    U.S. General David Petraeus, the commander of NATO's 130,000-strong International Security and Assistance Force told a lecture at a political sciences college in Paris that the task of stabilising Afghanistan was of vital importance.
    "It is again a vital interest that Afghanistan not become a sanctuary again for transnational extremists that can threaten this country, my home country, the other countries of the Alliance engaged in Afghanistan, each of which has an interest in ensuring that we achieve this important outcome," he told an audience of students, diplomats and journalists.
    NATO agreed last Saturday to hand control of security in Afghanistan to Afghan forces by the end of 2014 and said ISAF could halt combat operations by the same date if security conditions were good enough.
    Some NATO officials fear a rise in violence could make it hard to meet the target date set by Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the security handover, which could leave a vastly reduced number of foreign troops in a training and support role.
    But Petraeus said it was possible and admitted that Afghan forces had much to accomplish.
    "There is a clear recognition that there are numerous steps that have to be taken before the Afghans can indeed shoulder the burden, take the lead for security in their country, by some four years from now," he said.
    The U.S. General who was appointed to NATO's top job in Afghanistan said that progress made in Kabul in handing over security to Afghan forces would have to be repeated in other parts of the country.
    "Anyone who drives through the streets of Kabul will see Afghan police and Afghan soldiers as you go further out," he said. "But it is Afghans who are in the lead and we do see that as a model for the rest of Afghanistan and something to which all can aspire in the years between now and the end of 2014."
    About 90,000 of the 130 ISAF troops are American and there are more than 20,000 other U.S. soldiers based in Afghanistan.
    The Afghan conflict is widely seen as going badly for the United States and NATO. U.S. President Barack Obama was stung by criticism last year that he was jeopardising the lives of U.S. soldiers by announcing U.S. troops would begin withdrawing in July 2011.
    Critics have said that setting the date would embolden Taliban and the White House has been careful to refer to 2014 only as a date when Afghans would finally take the lead in security rather than as a target for the end of the U.S. combat mission.
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