Brown: we need a timetable for transfer in Afghanistan

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

Gordon Brown last night called for a timetable for withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan. The PM confirmed his offer to host a London summit in January to set out the timetable, which would transfer control to Afghan forces “district by district”.

The PM said:

“Tonight I can report that, methodically and patiently, we are disrupting and disabling the existing leadership of al Qaeda. Since January 2008 seven of the top dozen figures in al Qaeda have been killed, depleting its reserve of experienced leaders and sapping its morale. More has been planned and enacted with greater success in this one year to disable al Qaeda than in any year since the original invasion in 2001.

The international community will meet to agree plans for the support we will provide to Afghanistan during this next phase. I have offered London as a venue in the New Year. I want that conference to chart a comprehensive political framework within which the military strategy can be accomplished. A strong political framework should embrace internal political reform to ensure representative government that works for all Afghan citizens, at the national level in Kabul and in the provinces and districts. It should identify a process for transferring district by district to full Afghan control and if at all possible set a timetable for transferring districts starting in 2010.

For it is only when the Afghans are themselves able to defend the security of their people and deny the territory of Afghanistan as a base for terrorists that our strategy of Afghanisation will have succeeded and our troops can come home.”

Gordon Brown’s full speech, on Afghanistan, the economic crisis, climate change, and nuclear negotiations, can be read here.