Two European Diplomats Asked To Leave Afghanistan

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The New York Sun

KABUL, Afghanistan — Two European diplomats who went to one of Afghanistan’s most volatile regions have been asked to leave Afghanistan, officials said yesterday. A spokesman for the U.N. mission, Aleem Siddique, said a U.N. employee traveled to the volatile southern province of Helmand on Monday along with a member of the European Union. Mr. Siddique said the Afghan government asked the U.N. employee to leave, saying he was “detrimental” to national security. Other officials told the Associated Press the Afghan government has asked a U.N. employee and a European Union employee to leave Afghanistan.

Mr. Siddique said the two officials had been “talking to all people on the ground” in Helmand to help ensure the country’s stability but denied they were talking to Taliban fighters.

“We don’t talk to the Taliban, full stop,” Mr. Siddique said.

President Karzai’s spokesman, Humayun Hamidzada, said the two were “involved in some activities that were not their jobs.”

“We do not believe there is any basis for any U.N. official to need to leave the country, and we’re making this position clear to the government of Afghanistan,” Mr. Siddique said.

“We see this as a misunderstanding of what people were doing in Helmand,” he said. “There is a miscommunication between the authorities in Helmand province and the central government, and that’s what we’re trying to clear up.”

Mr. Karzai’s spokesman earlier said two foreigners — apparently the U.N. and European Union officials — had been arrested.

But because the two have diplomatic immunity they were never technically arrested and instead have been asked to leave, officials told AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Mr. Siddique said one of those arrested is a Briton from Northern Ireland and the other is Irish. He said the United Nations was told that “their presence was detrimental to the national security of the country.”


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