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07 October 2003

U.N. Security Council Expects to Expand Afghan Security Force

Negroponte says new resolution due in October

By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said October 7 that he expected the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF) to be expanded by the end of the month.

Negroponte, who is president of the Security Council for the month of October, said that he had received a letter from NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson that will "enable us to consider a resolution which would expand the ISAF mandate beyond Kabul and its environs."

Negroponte had already announced that the Security Council will undertake a mission to Afghanistan beginning October 31 to review security, humanitarian, reconstruction, human rights, and political activities in the country, including the ISAF operations. He said at a press conference October 7 that he expected a resolution expanding ISAF's mandate to be adopted before the Security Council mission began.

NATO currently has 5,500 troops in Afghanistan under a Security Council mandate to maintain order in Kabul and the area around the city. The Karzai government has been pressing the international community to expand the force to provide security in other major cities.

According to news reports, a NATO official has said that the alliance has advanced in its planning for an expanded force and would be asking the Security Council to prepare a resolution.

The Security Council mission will take place from October 31 to November 8. The aim of the mission will be "to underscore the international community's unwavering commitment to the peace and reconstruction process in Afghanistan and to promote further international and regional support to this end," Negroponte said in a letter outlining the trip to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The 15-nation high-level mission will visit Kabul, Herat, Kandahar, and Mazar-i-Sharif and Islamabad, Pakistan.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)