NATO report sees slow progress in Afghanistan

 A report presented here on Sunday in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly spring session sees a slow improvement of the predicament in Afghanistan.

In his Draft Common Report, titled "Transition in Afghanistan: Assessing the Security Effort," the rapporteur, Sven Mikser, said that to date, general progress in improving the wider security scenario in Afghanistan has been slow.

In accordance with Mikser, when there have been localized tactical successes in delivering security, as yet these have failed to deliver strategic results.

There remain important and widespread challenges to both security and governance in a lot of places, Mikser added.

General, there has been restricted progress with Counter-Narcotics efforts, the report said at the same time. While organizationally and structurally there has been progress in establishing Afghan counter-narcotic capability, these efforts have not borne substantial fruit however, the report stated.

On the other hand, the report stated it can't be denied that contributing nations are searching forward to an eventual conclusion of the operation. "Public patience with all the conflict is wearing thin," the report said.

There exists also concern about diminishing assistance amongst the nearby Afghan population for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) presence in Afghanistan, the report said.

Moreover, the insurgency nonetheless maintains a complex and competent facts operations capability that may be in a position to exploit both nearby and national grievances and frustrate ISAF efforts, the report mentioned.

The NATO-led ISAF was made in accordance with the Bonn Conference in December 2001, and currently 48 contributing nations present far more that 132,000 troops to this mission.

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