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.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS