Downing Street Says » Afghanistan

Asked if the Prime Minister thought that President Obama’s delay in deciding on troop numbers for Afghanistan was making it more difficult to make the case for intervention in the UK, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that he thought that this was a reference to reports on Bob Ainsworth’s appearance in a Select Committee. The PMS said that the Secretary of State was not actually making this implication; he was making it clear that there were a number of different factors at play, it was a fluid situation and always had been.

The PMS said that the decision by President Obama was imminent and we knew that the Prime Minister had been encouraging other members of ISAF to produce more troops. President Karzai was in place and had agreed to the five tests, so we were actually very close to a new phase in Afghanistan.

Asked to define the word imminent , the PMS replied that the President had been consulting with advisors and it would be safe to assume that imminent meant in the next few days. The PMS said that what was important was that the Prime Minister continued to set out the case for the campaign in Afghanistan, as he had been doing; we had 500 troops that were committed in principle and when the conditions were met those troops would move into theatre.

The PMS added that we had always said that the number of 500 was an in principle number and was subject to the three conditions set out by the Prime Minister being met.

Asked which condition had not been met, the PMS said that we did not yet know the full picture as far as the allies were concerned. We were hoping to get at least 5000 additional troops from up to ten countries and we knew that President Obama would be making a decision on his troop numbers soon.

Put that there was a theory that President Obama wanted to make a decision by Thanksgiving weekend, the PMS replied that he would not be drawn on that as he did not work for the White House.

Asked if the PMS saying that a decision was imminent was based on private conversations between No10 and the White House or was it based on reports in the media, the PMS said that he would not be revealing private conversations; he was giving people a sense of the dynamic of the situation.

Asked how quickly the 500 troops could be deployed, the PMS said that it was for military chiefs to advise on that point. What was important was that these 500 troops were ready to go and military commanders had that in mind.

Asked if there was any concern in No10 about the remarks made by Bob Ainsworth, the PMS said not at all. There was nothing the Secretary of State had said that could be interpreted as being inconsistent with what the Government’s view was.

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» Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Afghanistan

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