Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Foreign Troop Presence Should Not Alarm Neighbors: NATO

Foreign Troop Presence Should Not Alarm Neighbors: NATO

KABUL - Afghanistan's neighbors should not be concerned about the long-term presence of foreign troops in the country, NATO said Tuesday.
NATO spokesman Dominic Medley stressed that delegates at the Traditional Loya Jirga had agreed over the weekend that any long-term pact with the US would be on the condition that no operations would be launched against any third country from Afghan soil.
"NATO has always said that Afghanistan's neighbors have nothing to fear from the presence of ISAF troops invited by the government of Afghanistan and the United Nation's Security Council," Mr Medley said at a news conference.

He added that Afghan security forces are capable of securing Afghanistan after 2014, and that international troops remaining in the country after that date will be involved only in training.
Mr Medley also said that Afghan forces will in time take over the responsibility for conducting night raids.

President Hamid Karzai has long been critical of night operations which he says are offensive to local people.

"I once again emphasize that more than 95 per cent of night operations are being conducted in close co-ordination with Afghan security forces," General Carsten Jacobson, another ISAF spokesman, said.

Meanwhile, NATO's commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, praised the Afghan security forces for their provision of security during the Loya Jirga. The Taliban had threatened to disrupt the four-day assembly but it passed off without incident.