Paddy Ashdown, the international community's former envoy to Bosnia, should not be the UN's new representative in Afghanistan, the country's ambassador to the world body has told the BBC.
In an interview published on the broadcaster's Web site late on Saturday, Zahir Tanin confirmed a newspaper report that Afghan President Hamid Karzai wanted to block Ashdown's appointment.
The Times quoted unnamed diplomats as saying on Saturday that Karzai thought Ashdown wanted too much power and had raised his objection with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week.
PHOTO: AFP
Tanin told the BBC that the Kabul government's preferred choice instead would be NATO's deputy commander in Europe, General John McColl.
McColl was the first head of the international security force in Afghanistan in 2002 after the ouster of the hardline Taliban.
Tanin said government officials had been surprised to see Ashdown portrayed in the media as the final choice for the post when no formal announcement had been made.
"A negative atmosphere was generated through the media inside and outside Afghanistan, particularly in Britain, which hit a lot of nerves and paved the way for misunderstanding and concerns," he was quoted as saying.
Their preference for McColl was based on "who is going to be more helpful and who is going to be more able to work with the Afghan government and with different elements of the international community in Afghanistan", he said.
Ashdown, a former leader of Britain's second opposition party the Liberal Democrats, has declined to comment on reports of his appointment.
The ex-marine gained a reputation as a no-nonsense operator during his time in Bosnia from 2002 to 2005, pushing through sensitive reforms and sacking 60 officials suspected of belonging to a support network for war crimes suspects.
Karzai's opposition comes at a time of tension between Kabul and London.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, he was reported as having blamed British and US troops for contributing to worsening security in southern Afghanistan that had allowed the Taliban to return.
That prompted outrage from relatives of some of the 87 British service personnel who have died since the start of combat operations in Afghanistan in late 2001.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of