Downing Street Says » Afghanistan

» Friday, September 11, 2009

Afghanistan

Asked if the British Government would support an idea of a shared Government in Afghanistan once the election process had concluded, the PMS said not necessarily; it was important to remember that this was a step-by-step process and we had to make sure that the election process was properly seen through. Some of the allegations that had been made were now being investigated and we needed to continue dealing with things in Afghanistan on a step-by-step basis.

Asked if the UK and US were of the opinion that a coalition government in Afghanistan was a better option than having a second round of elections, the PMS said that he would not draw that conclusion. Security, governance and economic development were the three drivers that we needed to push forward, if we wanted Afghanistan to be able to self-govern again.

Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned that reports of fraud in the elections were having a detrimental affect on the moral of the troops, the PMS said that the Prime Minister had recently visited Afghanistan and was impressed with the morale of the troops on the ground. The elections needed to be conducted properly, which had been the aim of Operation Panther’s Claw.

Asked if the Prime Minister was alarmed by the findings of an ITV poll that showed potentially the lowest level of support for the Government’s position on Afghanistan, the PMS said that the Prime Minister set out in his speech last week the Government’s objectives in Afghanistan. We continued to communicate the Government’s position and wanted people to understand that the overriding issue was that we needed to be in Afghanistan in order to keep the streets of the UK safe.

Put that the results of the poll showed that the communication wasn’t working, the PMS said that we continued to communicate the Government’s objectives in Afghanistan; it had been a difficult summer, but the most important thing was to keep focussed on the objectives.

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