|
Taliban not credible threat: Britain
 The Taliban does not pose a real threat to the government of Afghanistan and is far from being a resurgent force, junior British foreign minister Mark Malloch-Brown said in a letter published on Thursday. In the letter to The Independent newspaper, the former UN deputy secretary-general dismissed the findings of a European think-tank report last week which said that the country risks becoming a divided state. The Taliban do not pose a credible threat to the democratic Afghan government, Malloch-Brown wrote.Control: The Taliban do not control a single province or have the ability to hold territory, showing they are far from being a resurgent force. He continued: Much progress has been made since 2001, but we recognise that many challenges remain. The Senlis Council wrote in a report last week that Afghanistan is in crisis and risks becoming a divided state, as Taliban insurgents now control vast areas of unchallenged territory, and called for the NATO-led force there to be doubled in size to 80,000. The Talibans regime was toppled in late 2001 by a US-led offensive, but they have stepped up their attacks recently. Posted by: Fred 2007-11-30 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=210391 |