ROBERTSON WELCOMES CALL FOR COHERENT AFGHAN EFFORT.

ROBERTSON WELCOMES CALL FOR COHERENT AFGHAN EFFORT.

SNP Westminster leader and Defence spokesperson Angus Robertson MP has welcomed calls by the Foreign Secretary for a more coherent effort to achieve a political solution in Afghanistan.

Mr Robertson, who visited forces in Afghanistan earlier this year, also repeated calls for a major rethink of UK strategy in Afghanistan after next months Afghan elections.

Mr Robertson said:

“Military action is just not enough, we need a political solution which should involve speaking to insurgents and offering them alternatives to fighting. David Miliband’s calls for a more coherent effort signal a welcome and overdue willingness to change the emphasis of our operations.

“We must take stock after the Afghan elections next month – Ministers still have to convince us that they have a proper strategy and a proper objective which have the likelihood of success.

“The awful toll of military personnel killed in Afghanistan has understandably led to questions about just what our forces are fighting for.

“Military action has not been enough and, perhaps most crucially, we need development, as the UK’s former ambassador to the UN, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, says the army has been "holding a wall up" in Helmand, but "no one has come along to build a buttress" of development.

“What is required is a major rethink that looks at all the options, and that will give people, not least our troops themselves, the confidence that the right strategy is being pursued and is achievable.”