London
Oct. 2: A leaked memo has revealed that British ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, believes that the US-led Nato coalition in the war-torn nation is destined to fail, according to reports.
Sir Sherard is alleged to have made the damning remarks in a briefing with a French diplomat, which then was leaked by the French media. According to the leaks, the British diplomat believes the campaign against the Taliban would fail and that the best hope was to install an acceptable dictator in Kabul.
A memo was sent by the French embassy to President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office in Paris about the briefing and this memo was published by Le Canard Enchaîné, an investigative weekly in France.
"The American strategy is destined to fail. The coalition presence, particularly the military presence, is part of the problem, not the solution," Sir Sherard is quoted as saying. Sending more Nato troops to control the situation would have "a perverse effect." "It would identify us even more clearly as an occupying force and multiply the number of targets," he is quoted by the article. Claude Angeli, the Canard journalist, told the Times newspaper that he had a copy of the two-page decoded text, which was partly printed in facsimile in his newspaper. "It is quite explosive," he said. "What I did not say is that our French diplomats quite agree with the British." He also said that the French had been told that Britain aimed to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan by 2010.
However, the foreign office, according to the Guardian, said in statement: "It is not for us to comment on something that is presented as extracts from a French diplomatic telegram, but the views quoted are not in any way an accurate representation of the British government’s approach. We work closely with our US allies in all aspects of decision making and regularly review our approach."
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