Afghan life tough but better, says top UK diplomat

But Mark Sedwill, a former British ambassador and Nato senior civilian representative to Afghanistan, said it would continue to be one of the poorest places in the world “for many years to come”.

He was responding to US army general Stanley McChrystal’s comment that the US and Nato are only half way to meeting their goals. Mr Sedwill, who worked closely with General McChrystal in Afghanistan, said: “Stan McChrystal is one of my closest friends. One thing I remember is that when he did his review, almost exactly two years ago, he described the situation then as serious and deteriorating and he warned if that continued we were facing failiure in Afghanistan.

“What I would say now, having adopted the lessons he very rightly identified at that time and put them into practice, is while the situation remains serious, unquestionably, it’s now improving and we now have the prospect of success and of delivering the outcome that he believes we could achieve and all of us work for.”

British troops

Mr Sedwill said British servicemen in Afghanistan were determined to complete the job before leaving the country. “We’ve now lost more than 380 British servicemen in Afghanistan.

“What they’re fighting for is what they and their forefathers have always fought for and that is the national security of the UK, to protect their families and the rest of the British people here at home.

There are no guarantees. Mark Sedwill

“And that’s why we went into Afghanistan in the first place. It was the source of the most severe terrorist threats that would affect us here in the UK, and that is still the case, that is what they’re still fighting for.

“That’s what we’re fighting to prevent happening again. One thing all of those servicemen who are there now would regret is if we left without finishing the job properly and their successors had to go back in and contend with that threat once more.”

Asked if there was a danger British national security would be in greater danger once the troops withdraw, he said: “There are no guarantees and no-one can be sure of what the future will bring. But in the end, what we have to do is make the best judgement as to what is the best way to guarantee the security of this country and our interests around the world.”

Mr Sedwill, pictured here with General McChrystal in Kabul in 2010, said it was time for the Taliban to accept that Afghanistan had changed for the better and it was time to join the national consensus.

Taliban support is less than 10 per cent. Mark Sedwill

“Taliban support is less than 10 per cent in the country as a whole… they do need to enter into the Afghanistan that the rest of the Afghan people have been building. That means respecting the constitution, including the rights of women, children, other minorities. But of course it does also mean they would have the opportunity to live their own lives and influence the future of Afghanistan in the way that they might wish.”

The lives of women had improved since the Taliban were ousted, but there was still a long way to go. “I think if I was a young woman I would look back at the prospects for young women over the past decade, since the Taliban were removed from power, to see how many improvements there have been.

“But we have to recognise that has been very patchy. Improvements for women in urban areas have been really quite significant. The number of girls in schools is dramatically different to what it was before the fall of the Taliban.

Poor ‘for many years to come’

“But in rural areas, rates of illiteracy among women are very high. Two thirds of rural women are still illiterate. So Afghanistan is going to remain one of the poorest and challenging places to be a woman or a child or indeed any kind of citizen for many years to come.

“Any kind of political process, any kind of political settlement, has to protect the rights of women and the Taliban will have to recognise that. And we see some signs that some of them are beginning to do so and don’t wish to remove the right to education, as they have in the past.”