Senior Dutch civil servants were not given instructions to ask US officials to pressure former minister Wouter Bos on Afghanistan, foreign affairs minister Uri Rosenthal said on on Tuesday evening.

Senior civil servant Pieter de Gooijer did not ask the Americans to put pressure on Bos, Rosenthal is quoted as saying by the Telegraaf. ‘The civil servant did not get any instructions to do this from the foreign affairs minister,’ he stated.
Leaked US embassy cables appear to show Dutch officials suggesting the Labour party leader did not understand the link between an invitation to the G20 summit and continued Dutch support for the military mission in Afghanistan.
‘Senior Dutch officials… have repeatedly asked the embassy to have a senior Washington official convey to Bos the real reason for the Dutch G20 invitation,’ one cable states.
Rosenthal said the reports of the meetings are ‘up to the US’.
Labour’s refusal to back a longer stay in Afghanistan eventually led to the government’s collapse.
De Gooijer has just been appointed the Dutch permanent representative to the EU in Brussels.