ANKARA
Reporting by Inci Gundag
Mark Sedwill, Director General of Political Affairs, Foreign & Commonwealth Office and UK Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said, "we will continue to pressure on the Syrian regime, continue to work to strengthen the opposition."
Sedwill, who was in Ankara to discuss the situation in Syria, gave a "Turkey, the UK and the Arab Spring: How to Prevent an 'Arab Winter'" titled conference in the Turkish capital.
After the conference, Sedwill replied the questions of AA regarding the NATO forces in Afghanistan and Turkey-Syria relations.
As the situation in Syria worsens every other day, and Syria is on the front pages of all of the Turkish newspapers, he underlined that he came to Turkey to discuss what they could do within the scope of providing relief to Syrians and said, "it is deeply frustrating for all of us that it has been impossible to bring this to a peaceful conclusion and that is because as we all know, regrettably, there is a deep division in the international community, and also because of the Assad regime's determination to kill their own people to hold on to power. We will continue to pressure on the Syrian regime, continue to work to strengthen the opposition, continue to work with Turkey and other countries to deal with humanitarian and other consequences including the consequences of instability spilling over Syria's borders."
He stressed over if NATO forces will withdraw in 2014 and said, "well, firstly NATO forces are not withdrawing, the combat mission ends in 2014," then he continued saying that Afghan forces would build up and would be able to do their jobs themselves after 2014.
Sedwill noted that upon an Afghan invitation, there would be still NATO training mission and Britain would continue provide trainers for their officers and he added, "I am sure Turkey will continue to contribute as well, as they already contributed a lot on that side."
Moreover, asking him if Taliban will be able to rule over the country post-2014, he said, "no. I do not believe they can. That is because the international community has made two very big commitments this year. In the Chicago conference we committed 4 billion USD a year to the Afghan Security Forces and in Tokyo in July, we committed 4 billion USD a year to Afghanistan's economic development. Those are huge commitments to help secure the country."
Special envoy Sedwill continued saying, "we need a political settlement to bring peace and stability to the whole country but even if there is not one then the Afghans would be able to secure most of the country and deal with whatever remains for the insurgency."
Furthermore, Sedwill stressed his point of view over Shanghai Cooperation Organization's (SCO) demand to be more active in Afghanistan after 2014, he said, "as SCO is not a military organization, so they are not interested in seeking to replace the NATO to us. More economic and political involvement of the SCO is welcome. This is a regional organization that has many of the major players of the region. Russia and China have involved. Afghanistan was granted observer status at the last SCO meeting, that was important. So I think, the more involvement of the regional organizations, the more commitment there is to integrate Afghanistan economically into the region, region's security structures, better."
