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| Afghanistan |
| NATO to play enhanced role in ISAF in Afghanistan |
| 2003-04-17 |
| IRNA - The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has decided to enhance its support to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. NATO Spokesman, Yves Brodeur, told journalists in Brussels yesterday afternoon that the decision was taken on Wednesday following a request of three NATO countries, Germany, The Netherlands and Canada, who are all leading ISAF nations. ''We already play a significant role in support of the existing ISAF Force, and essentially what this decision will do actually is that it will substantially increase... enhance that support.'' Neither ISAF, the name ISAF or the mission, any of that mission, will change. The operation ISAF will continue to work within the UN mandate and will operate according to the current and future UN resolutions, noted Brodeur. "Maybe we'll be able to redeem the continuous series of screw-ups we've had in the past. But if not, well, Afghanistan can't be much worse than Kosovo. Can it?" ''What we think it's going to do is that the enhanced NATO role is going to help in overcoming a growing problem of a continual search every six months to find new nations to lead the mission.'' The Afghan authorities, neighbouring countries, have already indicated a willingness to see a greater NATO involvement, so there is no resistance to that, he said. "NATO? Nyeh? Why should we care? Infidels are infidels." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |