Hamid Karzai's first priority after getting re-elected as Afghanistan's president is to open peace talks with Pakistan in an attempt to end the Taliban insurgency raging across their shared border, one of his top aides has said.
The security of all provinces will be under Afghan leadership within five years. This was the pledge made in London on Thursday at a conference aimed at aligning the international community with the reintegration plan set out by President Hamid Karzai.
The US government has urged Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to stop a secret Iran-Taliban pact against North Atlantic Treaty Organistion troops in Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday held bilateral meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Syrian Premier Wael Nader al-Halqi during which they took stock of their ties and discussed regional and global issues.
Launching another broadside against Pakistan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday said the Taliban, that has launched some audacious attacks in his country will not be able to "move a finger without Pakistani support."
Karzai was administered the oath of office by the head of Supreme Court Abdul Salam Azmi at a grand ceremony at the presidential palace in the presence of 800 guests, including External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari.
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.
Signalling a strained relationship with Hamid Karzai, United States has indicated that Afghanistan President's White House invitation could be withdrawn if he continues with his anti-US rhetoric.
In a delicate balancing act, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday described India as a 'close friend', while referring to Pakistan and Afghanistan as 'conjoined twins'.In remarks apparently aimed at assuaging Pakistan's concerns about the Indian presence in Afghanistan, Karzai said his country would never allow its soil to be used for activities directed against any of its neighbours.At the same time, Karzai was in Pakistan on a two-day visit.
Setting up conditions for peace talks with the Taliban, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said on Friday that the group's leader Mullah Omar must talk for peace, accept Afghan constitution and denounce violence.
Newsweek has carried a report that says Karzai's move may not have been wise.
Secret three-way talks between the United States, Afghanistan and Taliban have begun, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said.
India is expected to ink four pacts, including one in the field of mining with mineral-rich Afghanistan during the four-day visit of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who arrived in Mumbai on Friday.
The president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai on Thursday renewed his call to Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar to give up violence.
'I've been a member of the family really. But I certainly am critical of a number of the ways that, in particular the President, has run his country.'
"He is right to say that I know the facts (about what is happening in Afghanistan). I indeed know the facts, but I also know a lot of facts in Pakistan," said Karzai.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai made a telephone call to his American counterpart Barack Obama to express his condolence on death of more than 30 US soldiers in a helicopter crash.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in Islamabad on Friday on a two-day visit during which he will hold talks with Pakistan's leadership to boost the reconciliation process with the Taliban in the war-ravaged country.
Slamming the United States for lack of cooperation in the probe into the massacre of 16 villagers in a house-to-house rampage by an American army sniper, an enraged Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Friday said he is at the "the end of the rope".
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai arrived in Islamabad on Thursday on a two-day state visit for bilateral talks and to attend a tri-lateral summit of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan that will focus on the regional security situation, officials said.
United States President Barack Obama, during his unannounced visit to Afghanistan, assured his counterpart Hamid Karzai of smooth transition of the country's security to Afghan forces as American troops will begin winding down next summer.
'The Obama administration must show the sagacity to cooperate with Karzai's strategy,' says M K Bhadrakumar.
Seeking to enhance strategic cooperation and help Afghanistan deal with key challenges of security and stability, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj arrived on Wednesday on a crucial visit as the trouble-torn country approaches the first democratic transition of power after fall of the Taliban in 2001.
On the eve of Hamid Karzai's visit, US President Barack Obama has instructed his senior national security team to stop berating the Afghan President and treat him with more public respect, a prominent newspaper reported on Sunday. During a White House meeting last month, Obama made clear to officials that Karzai is the chief US partner in the war effort and it will be reflected in his visit to Washington that begins on Monday, Washington Post reported.
While some reports say Sirajuddin Haqqani, the operational chief of Haqqani network has recently held a meeting with Afghan president Hamid Karzai in the presence of Pakistani Army chief Ashfaq Kiyani, Kabul-based sources reveal the meeting did not take place.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai wants the elusive Taliban chief Mullah Omar to run for President in next year's election so that people could "vote for or against him".
The New York Times quoted the officials as saying that Karzai was moving toward accepting the findings of an international audit that stripped him of nearly a third of his votes in the first round, leaving him below the 50 percent threshold that would have allowed him to avoid a runoff and declare victory over his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah.
Visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday assured the United States that with a strong security force, Afghanistan would not be threatened by terrorists from across its borders post-2014 when the America-led international force withdraws from the war-torn country.
"Afghanistan is now stable but is grappling with problems like illiteracy and health care. There is need to build institutions to resurrect the country and we are doing it," Karzai said.
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.
A day after the worst attacks since the rout of the Taliban, the Afghan president said Taliban leader Mullah Omar was a coward who was hiding in Pakistan and sending youngsters to kill Afghans.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has confirmed that his government has begun informal talks with Taliban "for quite sometime" and hoped that the formation of a peace council will spur these efforts. "We have been talking to the Taliban as countrymen to countrymen," Karzai said in an interview to CNN, days after the American media had reported that secret high-level talks were underway.
Karzai told CBS television network that he had recently delivered the message privately to President George W Bush.
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.
Vajpayee is understood to have extended India's continued support to the rebuilding of Afghanistan.
Zardari is "said to have quietly given names of four international personalities--Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, Saudi Arabian intelligence chief Prince Muqran bin Abdul Aziz and the UAE intelligence chief to the UN inquiry commission to ask them: how did they know the secret in advance that Benazir Bhutto would be killed?" The News Daily reported on Thursday.
The Afghanistan government will engage with Taliban elements which are not part of the Al Qaeda network as it continues its military campaign against extremism and terrorism, President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday. "We believe that while we are continuing our campaign against extremism and terrorist networks, the Al Qaeda and its associates, we will also seek means other than a military campaign to bring stability to Afghanistan and to Pakistan by extension," he said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday arrived in New Delhi on a four-day visit during which he will hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and press for stepping up of aid -- both civilian and military including lethal and non-lethal weapons.
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