Liam Fox: troops will leave Afghanistan by 2014
Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, confirmed today that 2014 was the target date to pull out troops from Afghanistan. Published: 9:54AM BST 18 Jul 2010 But he said some military personnel would remain in the country to train Afghan forces. ''It has always been our aim to be successful in the mission and the mission has always said that the Afghan national security forces would be able to deal with their own security by 2014,'' Mr Fox told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show. ''We recognise that there will be further work to do in terms of training and improving the quality of those forces beyond that, which is why we have said training forces may be available after that date. But we have made it very clear that that will not be combat forces.'' His comments came after a document was leaked to a Sunday newspaper mapping out a blueprint for the withdrawal of coalition forces within four years. President Hamid Karzai is to announce a timetable for a "conditions-based and phased transition" at an international conference being held in Kabul next week which will map out the future of the troubled country, according to the leaked communique. The document, seen by The Independent on Sunday, reportedly states the withdrawal of Nato troops is to begin within months, with the Afghan National Security Forces taking control of military operations by the end of 2014. The disclosure comes after Foreign Secretary William Hague hinted at British troops leaving Afghanistan by 2014 but stressed that the Government was not "setting a timetable for what happens over the next few years". Mr Hague will attend the International Conference on Afghanistan on Tuesday, alongside US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and foreign ministers from more than 70 countries. The document states: "The international community expressed its support for the President of Afghanistan's objective that the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) should lead and conduct military operations in all provinces by the end of 2014." It goes on to pledge that the international community will continue to "provide the support necessary to increase security during this time, and the continued support in training, equipping and providing interim financing to the ANSF at every level to take on the task of securing their country". Prime Minister David Cameron's has previously vowed to have troops out by 2015 was ''quite conservative by comparison'', he said. Mr Fox went on: ''As you would expect I would not comment on any leaked document but a leaked draft document for a potential communique of a conference that hasn't yet happened is, I think, quite a leak.'' [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
