How is this related to the McCrystal news? UK envoy to Afghanistan-Pakistan region taking extended leave amid reports of rifts with US
Associated Press
- June 21, 2010
LONDON
LONDON (AP) — Britain's outspoken special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan has taken an extended leave of absence following reports of rifts between the former ambassador and his U.S. colleagues in the region, Britain's Foreign Office confirmed Monday.
Sherard Cowper-Coles, who was appointed only last year, is taking some "well-deserved" time off until some time this fall, the office said in a statement. The Foreign Office refused to say what he would be doing or why he was taking an extended break at such a critical period. Britain has just recorded its 300th fatality in the 9-year-old war amid a spike in insurgent violence.
The news comes amid reports of friction between Cowper-Coles and his American counterparts. The Guardian newspaper, which broke the story, said the Oxford-educated diplomat had clashed with U.S. and NATO officials, including Mark Sedwill, the trans-Atlantic alliance's top civilian representative in Kabul.
Both men have previously served as British ambassadors to Afghanistan.
The Foreign Office said that Cowper-Coles would be replaced, on a temporary basis, by Karen Pierce, the Foreign Office director for South Asia and Afghanistan.
Cowper-Coles has long had a reputation for f
rank talk and was once quoted as saying the war in Afghanistan was doomed to fail. He also was forced to apologize after telling an Arab audience that the English city of Nottingham was more dangerous than Riyadh, the Saudi capital.
In 2008, a French newspaper quoted the then-ambassador as saying that Afghanistan might best be "governed by an acceptable dictator" and that foreign troops were fueling the country's bloody insurgency and headed toward disaster.
Le Canard Enchaine, a weekly publication known for its investigative stories, published what it said were excerpts of the cable, including a passage that quoted the British ambassador as criticizing Barack Obama — along with his then-rival for the presidency John McCain — over pledges to send more U.S. soldiers to Afghanistan.
The British government said the alleged comments did not reflect its position, while David Miliband, Britain's foreign minister at the time, described the report as "garbled."
Another document, published by The Sunday Telegraph earlier this year, quoted Cowper-Coles as describing Afghan President Hamid Karzai's staff as incompetent.
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