Karzai said Afghanistan wanted India and Pakistan to sort out their problems.
The Taliban has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack on the presidential palace in Kabul where a press conference was scheduled by President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday. Multiple explosions and gunfire were reported near the presidential palace, which is the site for several important organisations.
Expressing concern over political instability and drug trafficking in Afghanistan, Russia and Pakistan today said the situation could deteriorate further post-2014 after International Security Assistant Forces are withdrawn from the country.
Addressing a press conference, Karzai said Kabul reserved the right to strike Taliban insurgents on Pakistani soil as a form of self-defence. "Afghanistan has the right of self defence. When the Taliban cross the territory from Pakistan to come and kill Afghans and to kill coalition troops, it exactly gives us the right to go back and do the same," Karzai said.
Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai concluded his first visit to Afghanistan for foreign office consultations after assuming office.
"You can change friends but not neighbours," Atal Bihari Vajpayee famously said this 15 years ago.
Karzai, who will be making his second visit to New Delhi in five months, will hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday on the latest developments related to the terror strikes. The main purpose of the visit, which was scheduled during the last few days, is to convey Afghanistan's condolences and solidarity with India in the wake of Mumbai attacks, official sources said.
Dr Singh's is the first by an Indian prime minister since Indira Gandhi visited Afghanistan in 1976.
The daring terror attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on Monday has come at a time when the resurgent Taliban has threatened to escalate a campaign of suicide bombings in an attempt to topple the government of President Hamid Karzai, who was himself targeted by the militants in April.
The terror group is in touch with the international community and intra-Afghan parties to make government in Afghanistan.
The president said the ISIS-K was behind the gruesome attack at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul and at a hotel nearby.
'Through the different ups and downs of my country, India has played a great positive role. The Afghan and Indian people should know this,' says Afghan Ambassador Masood Khalili.
The long awaited strategic partnership agreement signed by United States President Barack Obama and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai in Kabul reflects the common vision for a strong relationship between the two countries, a top American official has said.
When asked if he is in Pakistan, the Afghan leader replied: "Probably he is there. That's what the reports say now that come across."
Karzai has steadfastly opposed direct talks between the US and the Taliban, wanting Afghan ownership of the "reconciliation process", as the reintegration of the Taliban into the mainstream is referred to.
The national men's team beat India 2-0 to win the South Asian Football Federation championship in Kathmandu late on Tuesday, Afghanistan's first international football title, sending tens of thousands of joyous Afghans into the streets. Fans in cars and on motorbikes joined others on foot, cheering, blowing horns and waving Afghan flags throughout the night.
New Delhi has consigned to itself the role of the underdog, says Ajai Shukla
India has turned down Afghanistan's request for the supply of lethal weapons, saying it was not "either in a position or willing" to contribute lethal weapons right now, days after Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai raised the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
India's post 2014 Afghanistan policy appears to be glued to the best-case scenarios of a successful democratic transition. New Delhi hopes that it would remain 'business as usual' and would not necessitate a drastic revisiting of its continuing strategy. This, in short, is a strategy of convenience, says Shanthie Mariet D'Souza.
Taliban militants based in Afghanistan have threatened to continue attacks on Pakistani security forces and government installations from sanctuaries in Kunar and Nuristan provinces. "We don't care if the (Hamid) Karzai government or North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces decide to launch an operation against us in Kunar and Nuristan as this region has never been in control of the Afghan government and foreign forces," said Pak Taliban spokesperson.
Ashraf, who was accompanied by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik, said he would raise the issue of cross-border attacks from Afghanistan on Pakistan with the Afghan leadership
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday described as "worrisome" reports that Indian Consulate General in Jalalabad was the target of a terror plot in Afghanistan.
India on Tuesday assured that its assistance was neither "transitory" nor in "transition" to Afghanistan, which said it was looking forward to increasing training and capacity building of its security forces apart from equipping them with Indian help. The two countries also set in motion the implementation of the Strategic Partnership Agreement, inked last year during Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit to Delhi, by launching the Partnership Council.
Sixteen Afghans were killed by a 'rogue' United States soldier who walked off his base and opened fire on them in their homes in the early hours of Sunday morning. The dead include nine children and three women, plus five wounded.
Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef, a former high-ranking member of the Taliban regime has refuted reports that he is involved in any sort of negotiations between the Britain and reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar. Earlier, a section of the British media had reported that Mullah Zaeef's recent visit to London was aimed at facilitate British-sponsored talks between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and senior members of the Taliban.
The Talibs appear in complete control of Afghanistan days after American troops left the country.
A high-ranking Pentagon official on apologised to the Afghan leadership for the burning of the Quran by United States military personnel and also discussed the reconciliation process in the war-torn country.
United States efforts to seek an end to the war in Afghanistan has reached a "critical juncture", American officials have said indicating that Obama's pointman Marc Grossman is rushing to the region to resume preliminary talks with the Taliban.
"Today's attacks reinforce the need for the world to stand unitedly against terrorism and all those who provide sanctuaries to terrorists," the Ministry of External Affairs said.
India on Thursday approved small-scale projects worth $100 million for implementation in strife-torn Afghanistan.
Giving incremental fillip to their cooperation in strategic areas including trade and security, India and Afghanistan on Tuesday inked a partnership pact amid assertions that the agreement was not "directed against any other State or group of States".
Six days after former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani was assassinated, authorities in Kabul have arrested a prominent Afghan connected to the Taliban militants as a suspect.
The United Nations Security Council has dropped five prominent Taliban members from its sanctions blacklist under an ambitious national reconciliation plan of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.
Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence is providing safe haven to the Taliban leadership and the West need not mount a military operation to capture Mullah Omar as the elusive insurgent chief "is with them," according to Afghanistan's former spy chief.
The two-day visit to New Delhi of Professor Burhanudin Rabbani, chairman of the high peace council of Afghanistan, from July 14 will be an occasion for Indian leaders to have detailed discussions on the reconciliation process initiated in Afghanistan with the Taliban groups.
'I am not bound by the niceties of international politics where people decide issues based on their national interest and give it a moralistic name,'says Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.
In an apparent snub to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, his United States counterpart Barack Obama on Monday did not mention Pakistan in his opening remarks at the NATO Summit meeting on Afghanistan and instead welcomed the presence of officials from the Central Asia and Russia.
The German government has approved a substantial USD 190 million (Rs 1,007 crore) contribution annually to bankroll an Afghan army, post withdrawal of foreign forces in 2014 from the war-torn country.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday returned to Delhi after a two-day visit to Afghanistan, during which he held talks with the Afghan leadership on several bilateral, regional and international issues, including terrorism and stepped up assistance to the war-torn country. Dr Singh held talks with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, First Vice President Mohammad Qasim Fahim and Second Vice President Mohammad Karim Khalili.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances