Hamid Karzai hits back

ISTANBUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday hit back at the US ambassador to Afghanistan, who reportedly described him as an inadequate partner, saying he would not kowtow to Washington. “If partnership means submission to the American will, then, of course, it’s not going to be the case,” Karzai told reporters after a regional gathering in Istanbul. “But if partnership means cooperation between two sovereign countries, one of course very poor and the other very rich,... then we are partners,” he said. Karzai highlighted the hardships his country faced in combatting Islamist insurgents, saying “Afghanistan is on the frontline of the war on terror” and that the struggle had cost “massive casualties.” US ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry warned in diplomatic cables published in the New York Times that Karzai was “not an adequate strategic partner” and the surge in US forces would only deepen his government’s dependence on Washington. The message, penned in November and published Tuesday, said that, “Karzai continues to shun responsibility for any sovereign burden, whether defense, governance or development. He and much of his circle do not want the US to leave and are only too happy to see us invest further.” The ambassador’s comments were part of his objections to boosting US troops in Afghanistan, proposed by US commander, General Stanley McChrystal. McChrystal ultimately won the argument and Obama approved the deployment of an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. afp

Source:dailytimes.com.pk