Tag Archives: President Karzai

News, Politics, Government

Pakistan to try to mend fences with Afghanistan

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Pakistan is sending a top official to the Afghan capital this weekend to try to mend fences with its uneasy neighbor, and hanging in the balance are U.S. efforts to arrange peace talks with the Taliban.

The trip comes roughly two weeks after the Taliban closed their newly opened political office in the Gulf state of Qatar following angry complaints from Afghanistan that the Islamic militant movement had set it up as a virtual rival embassy, with a flag and sign harkening back to the days they ruled the country.

The political office was part of a U.S. plan to launch peace talks with the Taliban to end the protracted war, with American and other NATO combat troops scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year. But the talks ended before they could even begin amid the uproar last month.

Pakistan, which had helped persuade Taliban to agree to sit down with the Americans — and possibly with the Afghans after that — now contends that intransigence, suspicion and Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s reluctance to invite his political opponents at home to the negotiating table in Qatar is hobbling efforts to start the talks.

“They (Taliban) listen to us. We have some influence but we can’t control them,” Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan’s special adviser on national security and foreign affairs, told The Associated Press in advance of his trip to Kabul on Saturday.

“But they (Taliban) also say that the High Peace Council is not fully representative,” Aziz said, referring to Karzai’s 80-member negotiating team. “President Karzai should invite other people to join them.”

Mohammad Ismail Qasimyar, a senior member of the Afghan High Peace Council, told the AP that if the Taliban were making wider representation on the negotiating team a condition to restarting talks, then it “would be worth considering.” But he was suspicious of Pakistan, wanting assurances first that the demand was from the Taliban and not Pakistan.

Rancor and suspicion between Pakistan and Afghanistan run deep. Kabul blames Islamabad for not cracking down on Taliban militants who use the border area as a base to carry out attacks on Afghans and international forces in Afghanistan. For its part, Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of sabotaging peace efforts with its provocative statements, overtures to India and refusal to acknowledge the bloody war Islamabad is waging in its border regions.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Readout of President Obama’s Telephone Call with President Karzai

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By The White House

Earlier today, the President spoke with President Karzai of Afghanistan as a part of their regular consultations. They discussed a range of issues, including security transition, preparations for Afghanistan’s 2014 elections, and Afghan-led peace and reconciliation efforts. The leaders welcomed Afghan security forces’ increasingly assuming lead security responsibility across the country. They also look forward to the spring 2013 milestone, which will mark a shift in ISAF’s mission from combat to support, as Afghan forces assume the operational lead across the country. President Karzai affirmed his support for an inclusive process of preparing for Afghanistan’s 2014 elections, and the leaders noted that free, fair, and credible elections would be critical to Afghanistan’s future and continued international support. The President welcomed President Karzai’s recent discussions in Doha with Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani regarding Afghan-led peace and reconciliation. President Karzai welcomed the March 25 handover of the Parwan detention facility to Afghan control. The leaders committed that their teams would continue to keep dangerous detainees off the battlefield and work in partnership at the facility, consistent with Afghan sovereignty.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at The White House Press Office

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U.S., Afghanistan Reach Prison Transfer Deal

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By The Huffington Post News Editors

WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) – The United States agreed on Saturday to transfer to Afghan control a prison that houses insurgents and other dangerous inmates adjacent to Bagram airfield, the Pentagon said.
The agreement, reached after a week of intensified negotiations between U.S. and Afghan officials, calls for the formal transfer to take place on Monday and includes assurances that inmates who pose a danger to Afghans and international forces will continue to be detained under Afghan law.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai by telephone about the Parwan Detention Facility, a point of increasing friction between the two countries.
“The secretary welcomed President Karzai‘s commitment that the transfer will be carried out in a way that assures the safety of the Afghan people and coalition forces by keeping dangerous individuals detained in a secure and humane manner in accordance with Afghan law,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said in a statement.
The United States last year agreed to hand over responsibility for most of the more than 3,000 detainees at the prison to Afghanistan and held a transfer ceremony in September. But U.S. soldiers remained at the prison and controlled the area around it.
A formal ceremony transferring the last prisoners to Afghan custody collapsed at the last minute two weeks ago when General Joseph Dunford, the U.S. head of international forces in Afghanistan, called it off because Karzai rejected part of the transfer deal.
The collapse provoked an angry response from Karzai and embarrassed both sides as Hagel was starting his first official visit to the country as defense secretary.
Hagel pushed for intensified negotiations over the past to resolve the outstanding areas of disagreement. (Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

News, Politics, Government

US, Afghanistan OK detention center transfer

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The U.S. has reached an agreement with the Afghanistan government to transfer the Parwan Detention Facility to Afghan control, the Pentagon said Saturday, two weeks after negotiations broke down over whether the U.S. would have the power to block the release of some detainees.

According to a senior U.S. official, a key element to the agreement is that the Afghans can invoke a procedure that insures prisoners considered dangerous would not be released. The agreement also includes a provision that allows the two sides to work together to resolve any differences. The official lacked authorization to discuss the details of the agreement publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Transfer of the Parwan detention center is critical to the ongoing effort to gradually shift control of the country’s security to the Afghans as the U.S. and allies move toward the full withdrawal of combat troops by the end of 2014.

Afghans demanded control of the center, but U.S. officials have worried that the most threatening detainees would be freed once the U.S. transferred control. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai Saturday as officials finalized the agreement after days of intense negotiations.

The senior official said U.S. and Afghan officials who are familiar with the detainees would meet to assess the potential danger of their release to coalition forces. The official said that more senior level officials could be brought in if there are disagreements but that to date the two sides have been able to agree without bringing in those higher authorities.

Disagreements over the detention facility, which also included whether Afghans can be held without trial, had thrown a pall over the ongoing negotiations for a bilateral security agreement that would govern the presence of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after 2014.

Currently, there is an Afghan administrator of the Parwan prison, but the Americans have power to veto the release of detainees. The prisoners held under American authority do not have the right to a trial because the U.S. considers them part of an ongoing conflict.

Pentagon press secretary George Little said Hagel “welcomed President Karzai‘s commitment that the transfer will be carried out in a way that ensures the safety of the Afghan people and coalition forces by keeping dangerous individuals detained in a secure and humane manner in accordance with Afghan law.”

Last weekend Hagel spoke with Karzai, and …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

News, Politics, Government

NATO head: Afghan prez wrong to charge collusion

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The head of the NATO military alliance has emphatically rejected the charge by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that the U.S. and NATO are colluding with the Taliban to keep foreign troops in Afghanistan.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen calls that “an absolutely ridiculous idea.”

Earlier this month, Karzai accused the West of trying to craft an agreement between the Taliban and his political opponents. The U.S. has denied the allegations.

“We fully respect the sovereignty of Afghanistan,” Fogh Rasmussen told reporters Monday. “But we would also expect acknowledgement from the Afghan side that we have actually invested a lot in blood and treasure in helping President Karzai‘s country to move forward.”

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Afghan leader, US general discuss civilian deaths

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Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday demanded an explanation from the new top commander of U.S. and NATO troops for an airstrike that local officials say killed 10 civilians, half of them children.

The death of Afghan civilians during military operations has been one of the most contentious issues of the 11-year-old war.

Afghan officials said two houses were bombed late Tuesday during a joint Afghan-NATO operation in the Shigal district of the northeastern Kunar province, which borders Pakistan. Provincial police chief Ewaz Mohammad Naziri said five boys, four women and one man were killed along with four senior Taliban leaders, who were gathered in one of the homes.

The U.S.-led coalition has launched a probe to determine what happened.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, who took over Sunday for Gen. John Allen as the commander of all allied forces in Afghanistan, expressed “his personal condolences for any civilians who may have died or been injured as a result of the operation,” according to a coalition statement.

Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, said Dunford told Karzai that the coalition was conducting an assessment of circumstances surrounding this incident and that coalition officials would meet with local village elders and families of anyone harmed in the operation “to personally to express our condolence.”

Karzai’s office said Dunford explained that the coalition and Afghan forces were targeting members of al-Qaida when they summoned air support to the province.

“Pointing to a commitment Gen. Allen had previously made not to conduct any airstrike or bombing in residential areas, President Karzai reminded that such incidents must strictly be avoided in future and any recurrence is not acceptable,” the statement from Karzai’s office said.

The reported attack came as President Barack Obama announced Tuesday in his State of the Union speech that he will withdraw about half of the 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan within a year — a step toward withdrawing all foreign combat forces by the end of 2014.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News