NATO and US differ over foreign troops’ combat role in Afghanistan after 2014

LISBON, Portugal – NATO nations formally agreed Saturday to start turning over Afghanistan’s security to its military next year and give local forces full control by 2014. The U.S. and its allies appeared to disagree on when NATO combat operations would end.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he did not expect NATO troops to stay in the fight against the Taliban after 2014.

“I don’t foresee ISAF troops in a combat role beyond 2014, provided of course that the security situation allows us to move into a more supportive role,” Fogh Rasmussen told reporters, using the acronym for the International Security Assistance Force that is led by NATO.

Later, a senior Obama administration official said the U.S. had not committed to ending its combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal administration discussions.

The U.S. official said a decision on changing the U.S. mission in Afghanistan is not imminent because it is still unclear what the security needs and resources will be as the 2014 transition proceeds. Each NATO member country will make an individual decision on when their combat mission will change, the official said.

The U.S. view may reflect a reluctance to forecast when combat will end, in order not to give the Taliban a sense of hope for outlasting their adversary. It may also indicate less certainty by the U.S. that Afghans will be able to take full control by 2014, and perhaps a greater eagerness among the Europeans to be done with a nine-year combat operation.

Seeking to discount the apparent difference in views on combat beyond 2014, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that just because the U.S. hasn’t decided to end its combat mission in 2014 doesn’t mean it couldn’t eventually do so.

Asked about the matter while visiting Chile, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates suggested to reporters that a combat role for U.S. forces in Afghanistan was unlikely beyond 2014, but he did not rule it out.

“I anticipate that the international forces, some fraction of them, will remain to do training and to provide support for the Afghans,” Gates said. “But I think anything that remains after 2014 will be very modest and very much focused on the kind of training and advise and assist role that we are now taking on in Iraq.”

The U.S. officially ended its combat role in Iraq on Aug. 31, 2010.

On Friday, Ivo Daalder, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, told reporters that the 2014 goal and the end of NATO’s combat role in Afghanistan “are not one and the same.” But many NATO nations have insisted they will remove all their troops by 2014, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague reiterated that his country will end its combat role in Afghanistan by 2015.

“Make no mistake about it, that is an absolute commitment and deadline for us,” the British news agency Press Association quoted him as saying.

He added: “This remains a phenomenal challenge. There is a huge amount of work to do in Afghanistan, and I wouldn’t want anyone to think we can relax in any way about Afghanistan.”

Many NATO nations are discussing reducing the number of troops they have in Afghanistan before 2014, but the NATO agreement did not specify when troop reductions could begin.

“We’re asking only one thing: To do our job as for long as necessary, but then leave as soon as the minute comes when Afghans can take control of their own destiny,” said French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said that his country’s deadline meant that by 2015 “there will not be British troops in large numbers and they won’t be in a combat role.”

But he cautioned that the U.K. would continue to be involved in Afghanistan.

“We may be helping to train their army, we may be still be delivering a lot aid, in effect, because we don’t want this country to go back to being a lawless space where the terrorists can have bases, so it’s a proper long term relationship,” Cameron told Sky News television.

NATO hopes troops currently performing combat duties in Afghanistan will be permitted by their nations to stay on through 2014 to boost the effectiveness of the Afghan military so it can take full control of security.

In Lisbon the 28 NATO member states and Afghanistan also signed an agreement for the Western alliance to remain in Afghanistan after 2014 to provide military assistance for Afghan security forces _ including air support, training, advice and logistics _ and to help with economic development and humanitarian assistance.

Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance will not abandon Afghanistan after 2014 because it could slip back into chaos without assistance.

“Here in Lisbon we have launched the process by which the Afghan people will become masters in their own house,” Rasmussen said after NATO leaders including President Barack Obama reached a consensus on the handover date, first proposed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai last year, on the second day of Nato’s annual summit in Portugal’s capital.

No details were provided on the precise nature of NATO’s future role beyond the security handoff.

Karzai predicted the effort will succeed “because I found today a strong commitment by the international community. This will be matched by the people of Afghanistan.”

NATO also reached agreement with Russia on Saturday to expand an overland supply route to Afghanistan to allow for the transport of heavy vehicles and for the return of NATO equipment to Europe.

Fogh Rasmussen says the agreement showed determination to establish stronger ties with Moscow, the alliance’s historical Cold War enemy.

The route from Europe to Afghanistan via Russia and Central Asia serves as an alternative to the ambush-prone logistics link through Pakistan. The new accord enhances that by allowing for heavy equipment such as armoured vehicles to be hauled, as well as goods and materials to go in both directions.

Rasmussen and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev _ who is attending the NATO summit in Lisbon _ are also expected to sign agreements on establishing a new training centre in Russia for Afghan counter-narcotics agents and for the training of Afghan helicopter crews.