Foreign presence destabilizes Afghanistan: UK envoy

With two weeks left of his diplomatic career, Sir William Patey reiterated that foreign troops were now part of the problem in Afghanistan.

“Afghans have never been comfortable with foreigners and there comes a point - no matter how benign the intentions, and how much you explain that this is not an occupying force, that we are here under a UN mandate agreed with the Afghans - when you just outstay your welcome”, Sir William said.

Sir William told The Sunday Telegraph that if foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan “it will be very difficult for the Taliban to argue they are fighting a foreign invader when the people on the streets are their own police and army.”

The outgoing envoy also said that the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was a big mistake, which led to a long-running problem. “Years of missed opportunity” followed because the focus was on Iraq instead of Afghanistan.

Sir William said that both Washington and Downing Street wrongly assumed that the war was “won and the Taliban had run away”.

The 58-year-old said the opportunity to train and equip the Afghan National Security Forces to fill the power vacuum was missed, allowing the Taliban to return.

“We were too focused on Iraq and we took our eye off the ball. We thought we had won [in Afghanistan] and the Taliban had run away and we just sort of left it to the Afghans to get on with it and we very quickly switched our focus to Iraq. You don’t normally write history so quickly but I’m pretty clear that we won’t have to wait too long for history to make that judgment”, the envoy added.

The ambassador also said the role of British and other foreign troops had changed in the past few years and was less about killing the Taliban and more about “buying time”.