Security transition on schedule: NATO

KABUL civilian representative in the country said on Monday.

Despite a drawdown of foreign troops beginning next month, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF,  Dominic Medley said.

The first phase of the process would begin based on security conditions in the first areas due for the transition, and would not affect negatively the situation in Afghanistan, he said.

Addressing a press conference in Kabul, he said: “The first phase of the transition to Afghan forces is not simple and can take a month to complete.” The process would be completed in 2014, he added.

Proposed by President Hamid Karzai and approved by the alliance, the transition process would be irreversible, Medley said.

Karzai had announced in March the security responsibility would be handed over to Afghan forces in Kabul without Sarobi district, Panjsher and Bamyan provinces, as well as Herat City, Lashkargah, Mahtarlam and Mazar-i-Sharif in July.

Provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) would be also handed over to the Afghan security personnel, ISAF spokesman Josef Blats told the media briefing.

Even after the transition in Panjsher and Bamyan, PRTs in the two provinces would work on capacity development of Afghan security forces, he explained.

myn/mud