US backs Lord Ashdown for Afghanistan role

[T_i_B]

Source: Daily Telegraph

The United States is backing Lord Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader who served as the international community's "high representative" in Bosnia, to be the United Nations new "super envoy" to Afghanistan.

The proposed role would see Lord Ashdown being charged with uniting the efforts of both Nato and the UN in Afghanistan. Nato officials are understood to support his candidacy for a job with exceptional power.

"Yes, we are aware that he (Lord Ashdown) has been approached and asked if he will do the job," said one senior Western diplomat in the Afghan capital, Kabul. "This is very much a US-led initiative."

Another diplomat said: "Paddy Ashdown's is the name popping up most frequently within the UN, but it is not being pushed internally within the UN. It is the US and Nato that are pushing it.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/04/washdown104.xml

[Demeter]

1. The Only Way I'd Take the Job Was If Bush Abandoned It

No way I'd get into anything Dubya was messing with until he'd given up and gone home to take his nap.