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| Afghanistan |
| Karzai Says Afghan-U.S. Pact Only when Taliban Start Talks with Kabul |
| 2013-07-01 |
| [An Nahar] The Afghan government on Sunday said talks on a key security pact with the U.S. would only re-start when Taliban rebels meet with Kabul's negotiators, further complicating efforts to revive the country's troubled grinding of the peace processor. The Taliban have consistently refused to meet the High Peace Council (HPC), the official negotiators of the Afghan government, saying that President Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... is a puppet of the United States. Karzai suspended talks over the security pact, which would allow some U.S. troops to stay in Afghanistan after 2014, in protest at how the Taliban had opened an office in Qatar that appeared as if it was an embassy for the rebels. "The talks on the security pact that were suspended in reaction to the Taliban's Qatar office can resume when the talks between the HPC and the Taliban begin," a statement from the palace in Kabul said. Karzai has so far refused to send HPC officials to Qatar, but has not ruled out peace negotiations as long as any talks are rapidly moved to Afghanistan. The Taliban have also offered a glimmer of hope, saying the Qatar office may be used to meet unspecified Afghans "in due appropriate time" -- seen as a hint that their refusal to talk with the HPC could be negotiable. The search for a peace deal is an urgent priority as 100,000 U.S.-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... combat troops prepare to withdraw next year and Afghan forces take on the fight against the myrmidons. U.S. President Barack Obama ...I am not a dictator! recently said he anticipated "a lot of bumps in the road" during the grinding of the peace processor but that it was the only way to end the violence in Afghanistan. "President B.O. hopes to get the security pact between Afghanistan and America by October," Karzai said at a presser in Kabul on Saturday. "I told him that we have some clear and unchangeable conditions in this regard, which is peace and security in Afghanistan, guarantee of Afghanistan's national interest, a stable central government and an united Afghanistan." |
| Posted by:Fred |