Secret three-way talks between the United States, Afghanistan and Taliban have begun, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said.
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".
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai slams Pak, defends India's role in Afghanistan
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
There are a variety of areas like education, health, science and technology, engineering where India can help Afghanistan, he 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.
Vajpayee is understood to have extended India's continued support to the rebuilding of Afghanistan.
United States President Barack Obama on Sunday met his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai to discuss the transition process in Afghanistan. "We recognise the hardship that the Afghan people have been through. Both of us recognise that we still have a lot of work to do. The loss of life continues in Afghanistan. There will be hard days ahead, but we are confident that we are on the right track," Obama told reporters in a joint press meet.
"I don't think Karzai's comment was a threat. He is dealing with a very difficult situation on his border and is interested in protecting his people from forces, who want to attack them," White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto said, adding, "We need them working together on where these militias are and whether it's Taliban or Al Qaeda. And they need to come to an agreement in ways to try to diminish the impact of those groups."
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 Karazai ousted his security minster as well as his interior minister in an unexpected decision on Sunday.
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.
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has predicted that foreign troops might stay in his country for up to 15 years.
As Afghanistan enters the endgame of its 13-year-long partnership with the United States, President Hamid Karzai has added a new twist to its reliable relationship with India by presenting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with a "wish list" for military equipment.
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.
Regional security situation and other key bilateral issues between India and Afghanistan will be discussed during the talks between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on November 12.
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.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday spoke to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and discussed the situation arising out of Thursday's attack on Indian Embassy in Kabul.
'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.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has offered an olive branch to Taliban chief Mullah Omar, assuring him security if the latter gave up fighting and came forward for talks.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Friday assured India that a thorough investigation would be conducted into the suicide bomb attack near the Indian embassy in Kabul to ascertain who was behind it.
Noting that the Barack Obama administration is keeping a close watch on the Hamid Karzai government, the White House on Wednesday said that the Afghanistan president should not expect a blank cheque in his second term. "I think you heard the President speak clearly at West Point (at New York in December 2009) and since then about the need to take governance seriously; that there was not an open-ended blank cheque for waste and abuse going forward in Afghan," said an official.
After being critical of Pakistan over its links with Taliban militants, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has now said his country would stand by Islamabad in the event of hostilities with any nation, including the United States or India. "God forbid, if at any time there is a war between Pakistan and America, then we will be with Pakistan," Karzai said.
President Hamid Karzai has wondered why Islamabad allowed Indian diplomatic mission on its soil if it was a security threat for them.
The Second Regional Economic Conference on Afghanistan begins in New Delhi on November 18.
Afghanistan became a SAARC member in 2006.
Ladies and gentlemen, today's conference must serve, above all, as an impetus to define a vision that reflects the shared interests of all of us, and agree on working together towards achieving it.
The White House on Thursday said the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to stay in touch in a regular way, but has refused to get into the details of what transpired at the meeting between George W Bush, Pervez Musharraf and Karzai.
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.
The text of the speech made by External Affairs Minister SM Krishna at the international Afghanistan conference in Bonn
The United States had reached a tentative deal with the Taliban to allow, among other things, the transfer of five Afghans from the Guantanamo Bay prison in lieu of their public renunciation of terrorism, but the agreement failed to take off because of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's objections. A report in the Washington Post has claimed that the deal was the closest the two parties came to genuine peace negotiations after nearly a year of talks.
