NATO: Afghans can start taking security control next year

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Tuesday
expressed confidence that allied troops will be able to start a gradual hand-over
of security responsibilities to the Afghan government next year.

Rasmussen told reporters in Washington that the start of
that transition would be announced at the November NATO summit in Lisbon,
Portugal.

{mosads}The NATO secretary general stressed that the transition to
Afghan security forces will be based on ground conditions, but indicated that
he believes security in that country has improved enough for the allied forces
to start handing off responsibilities.

Rasmussen’s statements fall in line with President Obama’s
plan to start withdrawing some U.S. troops in July 2011. Rasmussen, however,
said he cannot give a specific date for the start of the transition. He added
that Obama’s July 2011 date “fits neatly into this concept.”

The head of NATO also said that the alliance supports the
Afghanistan president’s “ambition” for domestic forces to take the lead in
security operations by the end of 2014.

While he said it is “helpful to have that roadmap,”
Rasmussen cautioned a hand-over of lead responsibilities to the Afghan
forces does not mean an “exit” for the international forces.

He said NATO will never allow the Taliban to take power
again in Afghanistan.

“We will not leave until we have finished our job,”
Rasmussen said at a breakfast with defense reporters in Washington ahead of his
White House meeting with Obama.

Rasmussen cautioned that allied forces are approaching “tough
times” in their Afghanistan mission, but he expressed “optimism” that they
would succeed.

The war in Afghanistan will enter its ninth year in
October, and Rasmussen said that NATO has had the “wrong assessment
of the magnitude of challenges” that Afghanistan poses. The alliance also did
not realize that Afghanistan did not require just a military solution, he said.

The new strategy in place “can work” and “is working” but
will take time and endurance, Rasmussen said.