UN authorizes expansion of intl force's mandate in Afghanistan

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, October 14, 2003

UN authorizes expansion of intl force's mandate in Afghanistan

The United Nations Security Council on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution allowing the NATO-led international peacekeeping force (ISAF) to operate outside the Afghan capital of Kabul.

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The United Nations Security Council on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution allowing the NATO-led international peacekeeping force (ISAF) to operate outside the Afghan capital of Kabul.

Resolution 1510 authorized the expansion of ISAF's mandate to enable the force to support the Afghan transitional government in maintaining security in areas outside Kabul and its environs.

US Ambassador John Negroponte, who holds the rotating council presidency, told reporters that the council applauded the recent decision taken by NATO to carry out the expansion.

"This resolution has helped paved the way for the increased security upon which everything else is dependent," he said.

He said NATO's willingness to undertake a mission outside Kabulmade Washington change its cautious opposition to the resolution. "In that context," he explained, "we're willing to support such a resolution."

The resolution "will enable us to better take care of security ... in Afghanistan, especially in preparation of the implementationof the Bonn process, in particular with regard to the elections that are supposed to take place next year," said German AmbassadorGunter Pleuger.

Under the resolution, ISAF will provide protection to international civilian personnel, in particular humanitarian workers, and create a secure environment for further implementation of the Bonn peace agreement.

The measure also renewed the mandate of the peacekeeping force for another 12 months and gave the force the right to take all necessary measures to fulfill the expanded mandate.

In letters to the Security Council last week, both the Afghan transitional government and NATO Secretary-General George Robertson called for authorizing the expanded ISAF mandate.

NATO, which assumed the command of the 5,500-strong ISAF on Aug.11, has decided in principle to expand ISAF's operation to other parts of Afghanistan. Currently, its operation is confined to Kabul and its environs. Germany has offered to deploy hundreds of troops to the northern Afghan city of Kunduz.

A council mission is scheduled to travel to Afghanistan at the end of October to assess the security situation there, which has showed signs of deteriorating with a recent surge of attacks by the Taliban remnants.

Annan and the Afghan transitional government have repeatedly called for the deployment of ISAF outside Kabul to help stabilize the volatile security conditions in the central Asian nation.

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