“I think people want an endgame,” he said. “They want to know that our troops
are going to come home, they have been there a very long time. What I define
as doing the job is leaving Afghanistan looking after its own security, not
being a haven for terror, without the involvement of foreign troops. That
should be our goal. So that the British public, our troops and the Afghan
government, frankly, know there’s an end to this.”
He added: “I accept it [Afghanistan] won’t be a perfect democracy. There will
be huge development problems.”
On Syria, the Prime Minister said: “We’re all frustrated by Syria. What’s
happening in Homs is completely appalling. I’m endlessly kicking the tyres
and asking what else can be done.
“The shortest way of ending the violence is a transition where [President
Bashar-al] Assad goes, rather than a revolution from the bottom.”
British officials say that talks between Mr Obama and Mr Cameron will
“preview” options for how and when the remaining 68,000 troops in
Afghanistan will exit after the end of this year.
A Nato summit in Chicago in May will be used to “define the next phase of
transition”, with British officials emphasising the importance of financial
contributions to avoid a repeat of the vacuum left by the withdrawal of
Soviet forces in 1989 after a decade-long occupation.
The Government has repeatedly said that British combat troops will leave
Afghanistan by “the end of 2014”.
Senior American figures have said that their troops will hand control of many
operations to their Afghan counterparts in mid-2013. Britain will act in
“lockstep” with the Americans, and significant numbers of British forces are
expected to return home next year.
Mr Obama, who faces a general election in November, has pledged there will be
no “rush for the exits” in Afghanistan. He also issued an emotional
condemnation of the alleged massacre of Afghan civilians. “The United States
takes this as seriously as if it was our own citizens, and our children, who
were murdered,” Mr Obama said.
Related posts:
Views: 0