London: London`s Ambassador to Kabul said he expects Britain`s presence in Afghanistan will last at least "a generation", but hopes that its troops will no longer be fighting there within five years.
Mark Sedwill said British forces, which have seen 38 soldiers killed in Afghanistan since the start of July, will remain in training and mentoring role but withdraw from the frontline.
The Ambassador said he expects the security situation in Afghanistan to improve over the coming years and that the Presidential Election campaign bodes well for creating a truly national government.
"We would expect security to improve over the next few years with the US surge," Sedwill told reporters at the Foreign Office in London via videolink from Kabul.
"I hope that British forces are no longer in combat roles three to five years from now because the Afghan forces should by then be big enough and capable enough to take on that front-line task.”
"But we will have British forces here, I am sure, for many years in training and mentoring roles -- and some of those still are quite dangerous, incidentally.”
"We would expect there to be a British presence here supporting development, trying to bring this country up... for at least a generation.”
"We`re not really looking to the point of withdrawal. We are looking to reconfigure our military and civilian presence over the next few years as we gradually make progress."
Britain has around 9,150 troops in Afghanistan, largely battling Taliban insurgents in the troubled southern Helmand province.
Sedwill said the extra British troops brought in to help during the elections would stay in the country throughout the entire campaign, should it run into a second round, and its aftermath.
He said the recent British military operation to clear the Taliban from parts of Helmand would have gone ahead during the Afghan summer regardless of the elections, amid reports that the turnout there was extremely low.
Sedwill said the embassy was drawing no conclusions from the first wave of an election he said was held in a "rough and ready" fashion amid widespread irregularities.
"The electoral complaints commission is investigating more than 200 complaints, around 35 to 40 of which they believe could be material to the outcome, if upheld," he said.
The vote "has been competitive rather than divisive and we hope that continues after the election”.
"The test of success is whether the outcome reflects the will of the people and therefore Afghanistan has a genuinely national government.”
"We are, so far, pretty satisfied with how the election has gone. More importantly, our sense is that the Afghan people are satisfied themselves."
Bureau Report
