Even though the Taliban has managed to capture Afghanistan and form a government, an internal rift between the faction has started emerging, according to media reports.
As the second Hamid Karzai government settles down to business in Afghanistan, India must seriously focus on long-term intervention and assistance in stabilising one of its most important neighbours, a variety of Afghan and Indian politicians, analysts and diplomats said in Kabul and New Delhi.
With the US having announced that it will begin pulling out its troops from Afghanistan from July 2011, India said on Thursday that "international presence" in the war-torn country was needed for a much longer time.
Afghanistan on Monday night assured India that it would take all possible steps to ensure the safety and security of its citizens, who are engaged in developmental work in the war-torn country.
According to reports, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has talked to Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna as well as his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mehmood Qureshi on the telephone to raise the prospect of another "talk about talks".
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is seeking removal of upto 50 Taliban commanders from a United Nations terror blacklist in a gesture intended to advance a political reconciliation in his country.
The Pakistan Army distanced itself from media reports that its chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had arranged a secret meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the leader of the Haqqani militant network based in North Waziristan.
In a significant policy shift, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has agreed to send a group of military officers to Pakistan for training, a decision which could raise eyebrows in India.
Special US Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke will be travelling to Europe to consult leaders in Germany, France and Russia, before proceeding to Kabul to attend the inauguration of Hamid Karzai for his second term as Afghanistan's president.
United States President Barack Obama on Monday congratulated Hamid Karzai on his re-election as the president of Afghanistan and asked him to improve governance, besides eradicating corruption.
A sacked United Nations official has accused President Hamid Karzai of organising second poll fraud as his main challenger on Monday pulled out of next weekend's runoff election amid fears of rigging, a news report has said.
Despite claims that Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's younger brother Ahmad Wali Khan Karzai is a drug lord, Senator John F Kerry says no US agency has given him proof.
The White House informed media persons that during a telephone conversation with Karzai, Obama underscored that this decision was in the best interests of the Afghan people.
United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday welcomed as 'constructive action' his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai agreeing for a runoff after electoral authorities invalidated tens of thousands of votes in his favour, reducing his vote share in the presidential election to less than 50 per cent.
The runoff election will be held on November 7
Diplomatic observers and South Asia experts in the US do not believe that two of India's major concerns that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh brought up with President Obama on Afghanistan, during his state visit in November and again recently on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit have been alleviated during the summit between Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Barack Obama's arrival in the White House and the wind of change sweeping through Washington could lead to the ousting from power of Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, The Independent has learnt.
After initial skepticism, the Obama administration has finally begun to acknowledge that Hamid Karzai would be re-elected as Afghanistan's President for second consecutive term, media reports said on Monday.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who arrived in Kabul on Wednesday on a two-day visit, discussed cooperation in the field of security and developmental projects with President Hamid Karzai and Foreign Minister Rangin Dafdar Spanta.
The United States administration on Monday rolled out the red carpet for Hamid Karzai and his entourage, barely six weeks after the White House seriously considered canceling the invitation extended to the beleaguered Afghanistan president.In March, President Obama had made a surprise visit to Kabul and read out the riot act to Karzai. While inviting the Afghanistan president to Washington, Obama had also rebuked him for his failure to end massive corruption.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai will arrive in Washington on Monday to hold talks with the United States administration on a host of crucial issues.Karzai has already been pulled up by Obama over the rampant corruption in the Afghanistan administration. But in a bid to pacify its important ally in the war on terror, Obama has reportedly instructed senior officials to treat Karzai with respect and stop criticising his government.
Karzai is leading the results of the presidential elections held on August 20, amidst reports of widespread voters fraud and rigging. He said all such complaints needs to be thoroughly investigated.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who discussed the Mumbai terror attacks, said the incident shows that terrorism poses a threat to the entire humanity and all countries should fulfil their bilateral and multilateral obligations to prevent the scourge.
The fight against terrorism and extremism on Monday topped the agenda of talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Afghan President Hamid Karzai as the two leaders discussed a range of bilateral issues ahead of the SAARC summit.
Warning of 'shocking scale' of vote rigging in the Afghan Presidential elections, the main challenger to Hamid Karzai has said the poll fraud will remove all legitimacy from the new government.
The Abdullah camp had said recently that it will not accept a Karzai victory as a legitimate outcome.
Amid a series of anti-US rhetorics coming from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the White House showed signs of "frustration" on Monday with regard to this war-torn country, where its forces have been engaged in war against terrorism for the past eight years.
The White House on Tuesday said it does not indulge in cash transactions in Afghanistan and all its assistance to the war-torn country is accountable to the Congress, after Afghan President Hamid Karzai had said that he received "bags of cash" from Iran and the United States.
Claiming that it was not in "direct conflict" with India, the Taliban has said there was a possibility of reconciliation even as it justified the February 26 Kabul attack on Indians as a "legitimate" action.
Hamid Karzai remains a frontrunner but faces a serious challenge from his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister in his cabinet.
The Afghan government was holding secret talks with the Taliban's No 2 when he was captured in Pakistan, and the arrest infuriated president Hamid Karzai, according to one of Karzai's advisers.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the Parliament on Friday that the "cowardly act" on February 26 in Kabul "will not bend our determination to help Afghanistan".
A day after the terror attack in Kabul targeting Indians, Afghan President Hamid Karzai today called up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and assured him that extra measures would be taken to ensure the safety of Indians there.
Reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar has reemerged to reassert direct control over the militant group, ordering attacks and shuffling field commanders in Afghanistan, as his group faces an offensive from the US troops and Pakistani military in Waziristan.
"Now, our 20-year military presence in Afghanistan has ended," he said, thanking armed forces for their execution of the dangerous retrograde from Afghanistan as scheduled -- in the early hours of Tuesday (August 31) -- with no further loss of American lives.
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has predicted that foreign troops might stay in his country for up to 15 years.
An ISIS-Khorasan planner was killed in a "counterterrorism" operation conducted by US military forces in the Nangahar province, a day after a terror attack in Kabul killed scores of people including 13 US troops.
China on Friday expressed shock at the deadly suicide attacks at Kabul airport, saying the security situation in Afghanistan remained "complicated and severe" and that Beijing will work with the international community to cope with terrorist threats and prevent the war-ravaged country from becoming a hotbed of terrorism.
The US is not in a forgiving mood for being humiliated in such a manner by an insurgent force and made to look 'loser' internationally, predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Underscoring the need for more rapid development of Afghan national security forces, President Barack Obama has given his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai a clear time line of 18 to 24 months to achieve the goals set by the US.
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