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'Right strategy' in place in Afghanistan, Petraeus insists

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Oct 15, IRNA -- The top US military commander in Afghanistan insisted on Friday that he is confident that the nine-year old war is heading in the right direction.

'No one should have any illusions about how difficult the fight will continue to be as we and our Afghan partners strive to bring peace to a nation that has suffered through more than 30 years of continuous war,' General David Petraeus said.

'Still, I believe that we now have the right strategy in place,' he insisted in a speech at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

His visit follows last week’s fatal US attempt to rescue British aid worker Linda Norgrove.

In a meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday, Petraeus pledged to make an inquiry into her death, reportedly caused by a US grenade, a “personal priority.

In his speech, he revealed that NATO-led forces had facilitated the passage of a senior Taliban commander to Kabul to hold talks with the Afghan government.

'In certain respect we do facilitate that, given that, needless to say it would not be the easiest of tasks for a senior Taliban commander to enter Afghanistan and make his way to Kabul,” the US general said.

There have been reports of informal contact between members of the Taliban and President Hamid Karzaei’s government, which has formed a High Peace Council devoted to pursuing reconciliation moves with militants.

'NATO and the United States both do support president Karzai's initiatives in this regard, and the red lines he's established, in terms of reconciliation,” Petraeus said.

Those seeking reconciliation “would have to lay down their weapons, renounce violence, cut their ties with transnational extremists, and accept the Afghan constitution,” he said.

“The US general cited military efforts to improve security in the southern Afghanistan's Kandahar and Helmand provinces and focused on the importance of increasing the size of the Afghan security forces.

'The kind of developments we've seen, the ongoing efforts to establish an effective government, and the hard-fought but steady security gains all provide grounds to believe that our efforts in Afghanistan can achieve progress.”

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Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 30021088