LISBON: NATO endorsed a plan Saturday to hand control of security in Afghanistan to Afghan forces by the end of 2014 and the alliance's leader said the NATO-led force would cease combat operations by then. But senior US officials cast doubt on whether the United States, the dominant power in the 28-nation alliance, would end its own combat mission before 2015 because President Barack Obama has not yet set a date for this. Some NATO officials also fear a rise in violence could make it hard to meet the target date set by Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the security handover, which would leave a vastly reduced number of foreign troops in a training and support role. Despite the concerns, NATO leaders backed the timetable for the security handover at a summit attended by the Afghan president and 48 countries with troops in Afghanistan. “Today marks the beginning of a new phase in our mission in Afghanistan,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said. “I don't foresee ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) troops in a combat role beyond 2014, provided of course that the security situation allows us to move into a more supportive role.” Karzai told a news conference he also believed the handover, starting early next year, could be completed by the end of 2014. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon cautioned, however, that the handover must be shaped by the security situation and not by timetables. “There are no short cuts to peace,” he said. The senior US officials also raised doubts about the target date for the end of combat operations, saying Obama would decide when the US combat mission ends only after he reviews progress in the war. “The administration has not taken that decision yet,” an official said. The Afghan conflict is widely seen as going badly for the United States and NATO, and is a tough political problem for Obama. Many countries want to withdraw troops gradually as the war becomes increasingly unpopular. Obama, who has sent 30,000 more US troops to the war in the past year to try to quell the Taliban-led insurgency, intends to start withdrawing some of them in July 2011. He also supports efforts at reconciliation with the Taliban. Rasmussen said the strategy did not mean all 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan would leave by the end of 2014. “Let there be no doubt about our continuing commitment. Afghanistan's fight against terrorism is of strategic, global importance,” he said. NATO leaders invited Russia to take part in developing a European anti-missile shield and announced that Moscow had agreed to allow the allies to ship more military equipment to and from Afghanistan through Russia. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow would work with NATO to study a future European missile defence grid and hailed the success of Russia's first summit with the Western allies in two years. “A period of very difficult tense relations has been overcome,” he said, after the meeting with the 28 NATO members in Lisbon.”
