LOC12:10
09:10 GMT
LONDON, Nov 10 (KUNA) -- Killing increasing numbers of Taliban commanders
makes a political settlement in Afghanistan harder to achieve, a former senior
British envoy to the country said Wednesday.
Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles praised the present government, saying Prime
Minister David Cameron understood the situation in Afghanistan in a way the
previous administration had not.
But he urged the premier to give US President Obama's administration "the
cover and the courage" to pursue a political solution leading to the
withdrawal of foreign troops.
Sir Sherard, who was the UK's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan
until earlier this year, delivered a similar message yesterday to the House of
Commons foreign affairs committee. This morning he told BBC Radio: "The more
Taliban we kill, the more difficult in the end it is going to be to negotiate
a sustainable settlement.
"These people were never defeated in 2001, they were pushed down to the
south and the east. Until they are brought into the political settlement there
won't be peace in Afghanistan.
"What we need to do, and what our Prime Minister understands, is give the
Obama administration the cover and the courage to get the political process
going."
He added: "This Government and the Prime Minister in particular 'get'
Afghanistan in a way that perhaps others in the previous government didn't."
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KUNA 101210 Nov 10NNNN