Editing Paddy Ashdown (section)

=== Offer of Afghanistan post ===
Ashdown was later asked by US secretary of state [[Condoleezza Rice]] and Prime Minister Gordon Brown to take charge of the Allied effort in [[Islamic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]],<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7140551.stm |title=Dismantling the Taleban is the aim |first=Paul |last=Reynolds |work=BBC News |date=12 December 2007 |access-date=23 November 2007 |quote=The name of Lord (Paddy) Ashdown, who ran Bosnia-Herzegovina after the civil war, has been mentioned.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Abramowitz |first=Michael |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/16/AR2007121601823.html?hpid=topnews |title=Bush Faces Pressure to Shift War Priorities: As Iraq Calms, Focus Turns to Afghanistan |name-list-style=and |author2=Peter Baker |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=17 December 2007 |access-date=23 November 2007 |quote= European newspapers have focused on Paddy Ashdown, a British politician and envoy, but a former senior military officer said his appointment would be considered controversial and seems unlikely.}}</ref> though an unnamed source is quoted in a January 2008 [[Reuters]] report indicating that Ashdown was also approached by UN secretary-general [[Ban Ki-moon]] and met with the Afghan president [[Hamid Karzai]] secretly in Kuwait to discuss the post which he later accepted.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKL1664024720080116?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120717030846/http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKL1664024720080116?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews |url-status=dead |archive-date=17 July 2012 |title=Ashdown accepts job as U.N. Afghan envoy |first=Michael |last=Abramowitz |name-list-style=and |author2=Peter Baker |work=Reuters |date=16 January 2008 |access-date=16 January 2008 |quote=Yes, he has accepted the job<!--," the source said of an agreement between Ashdown, 66, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon-->.}}</ref> He later decided against taking the role after gleaning that Afghanistan preferred General [[Sir John McColl]] over him.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7211667.stm |title=Ashdown pulls out of Afghan role |work=BBC News |date=27 January 2008 |access-date=30 April 2010}}</ref> On 7 March, Norwegian diplomat [[Kai Eide]] was appointed as the UN representative for Afghanistan, stating "I'm not Paddy Ashdown, but don't under-estimate me."<ref>{{cite news|last=Leithead |first=Alastair |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7318452.stm |title= UN's new Afghan envoy begins work |work=BBC News |date=28 March 2008|access-date=30 April 2010}}</ref>