British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday warned the Taliban that it would be totally erroneous to believe that its insurgent forces can destabilize Afghanistan after NATO troops withdraw from the country in 2014.
Speaking at a press conference following talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, Cameron emphasized that the recent NATO conference in Chicago and a donors’ conference in Tokyo have shown the West's commitment “to securing Afghanistan's future and prosperity for decades to come.”
"I think this sends a very clear message to the Taliban: you cannot wait this out till foreign forces leave in 2014 because we will be firm friends and supporters of Afghanistan long beyond then," The Guardian quoted Cameron as saying.
"What I would say to the Taliban is be in no doubt there is a very clear and strong plan to transfer lead security responsibility from very capable ISAF [International Security and Assistant Force] forces, including British forces, to very capable Afghan forces,” Cameron continued.
"I am content that they will be able to defeat an insurgency. Of course, we would make even further political progress if there were successful political talks and if the insurgency was to come to an end in that way. But the Taliban should be in no doubt that we will be handing to a very capable, very large, well-equipped Afghan army, security forces, local police."
Britain and other NATO countries are to pull out all their military forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The process to hand over security to Afghan forces in stages was concerted earlier this summer.
