And for any solution to work, Pakistan could not be excluded, the writer Tahir Ali said, not least because a great many Pashtuns, who live within Pakistan but don't recognise the Afghan-Pakistan border, would be up in arms. The Pakistan military would be a key player in any decision taken on Afghanistan -- along with Iran, Russia and China.
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.
Amidst a war of words between the two countries, the US came out in defence of Afghan President Hamid Karzai calling him a valuable partner and said American officials need to be sensitive while making comments on the war-torn country. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said General Stanley McChrystal, who is the head of US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation-led troops in Afghanistan, had excellent relations with the Afghan President.
Streets in capital Kabul were mainly quiet and tense early on Thursday as Afghans awoke and headed to the polls for an anxiously awaited presidential election that Taliban fighters have vowed to disrupt with attacks
At least three gunmen, all reported to be members of the Taliban, stormed a central Kabul bank on Wednesday morning, and are currently surrounded by police.
Afghanistan elects a new president on August 20 against the background of horrific violence.
A number of world leaders, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on Friday called up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to express their solidarity with India in the wake of the deadly terror attacks in Mumbai.Besides Brown, other leaders to call up Singh included Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Mauritian Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam.
The Centre on Saturday ruled out the possibility of holding talks with the Taliban and said that New Delhi will only be dealing with the legitimate government led by President Hamid Karzai.India believes that Taliban is the 'antagonist and not the protagonist' and is also aware of its collusion with the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba, said sources. The LeT and the Taliban are specifically targeting Indians and Indian interests in the war-torn country, said sources.
"I do not think that India has been squeezed out. I think India is playing a stellar role in rebuilding Afghanistan which has been acknowledged by the people of Afghanistan and by the legitimate Government of Afghanistan, and that is what matters," Krishna said in an interview to Karan Thapar for Devil's Advocate.
The announcement follows Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh's brief stopover in Kabul earlier today en-route to Islamabad.
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.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was obviously so impressed by her meetings with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari that she ventured into the White House briefing room after sitting in on the meetings between President Barack Obama and the two leaders, to express her optimism that a solid alliance had been formed committed to crushing the Taliban and other extremist elements destabilising the region.
Angry over the killings of more than 100 people in the United States' air strikes in Afghanistan this week, President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday said such casualties has been resulting in resentment of people in his country.
Pakistan is reportedly lobbying for new government in Kabul without Hamid Karzai as president.
India has completed the construction of the 218-km Zaranj-Delaram Highway in South-Western Afghanistan despite attacks by Taliban and the loss of precious lives of Indian nationals working on the project.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is in India for talks. Sheela Bhatt reviews the relationship.
The strike by a Hellfire missile in Kabul on August 29, which was launched in an effort to kill ISIS-K planners, instead killed 10 civilians, he said.
There has been a sharp increase in acts of terrorism in Afghanistan since the new Pakistan government assumed office in Islamabad in March.
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.
51-year-old Karzai was administered oath of office by the head of the Supreme Court, Abdul Salam Azmi, at a grand ceremony at the heavily fortified Presidential Palace in the presence of 800 guests, including External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
As United States President Barack Obama is about to finalise his new policy on Afghanistan, his envoy to the country has expressed his misgivings about sending more troops to the war-torn nation and raised questions on the capability of Hamid Karzai as head of the state.The two strongly worded classified cables, sent to Obama last week, were believed to have been discussed by Obama with his key national security and defence aides at the White House on Wednesday.
Afghanistan presidential challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, who forced Hamid Karzai to go to a second round in the election, has described his triumph as "history in the making" and helped save the country's fragile democracy.
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.
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.
A total of six Indians, including a Border Roads Organisation driver and four ITBP soldiers, and 129 Afghans were killed in these attacks. The 215-km long Delaram-Zaranj highway, a symbol of India's developmental work in the war-ravaged country, was handed over to Afghan authorities by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the presence of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta.
India's immediate priorities have been the safe return of the Indians still in Afghanistan, bringing back the Afghan nationals who stood by New Delhi, and ensuring that Afghan soil is not used for terrorism directed at India
US President Barack Obama, who made a surprise visit to Kabul and met President Hamid Karzai, has vowed to deny the Al Qaeda safe haven and reverse Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan.
Afghan politician Ali A Jalali, a former interior minister, speaks on the situation in his country.
"Not only this, but we also helped the citizens of our neighbouring countries to return to their country when the COVID-19 pandemic had struck, irrespective of caste, religion, class, area etc," said minister of state for defence Ajay Bhatt.
A few days before her assassination, Benazir Bhutto told journalist Hamid Mir that she was aware of the threats to her life but she believed that 'there is a difference between a politician and a leader. A politician always asks for sacrifices and a leader always sacrifices.' She said she was ready to sacrifice her life for Pakistan.
The Biden administration expects the Modi government to continue to remain as its loyal camp follower even as Washington continues to act in self-interests, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on friday that Taliban leader Mullah Omar is not interested in peace talks or the reconciliation efforts of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "I do not expect Mullah Omar and those people to be at all interested in this. In fact, they've made it very clear that they're not," Clinton told CNN.
The Democratic Senator with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Concerned over increasing influence of Taliban in Pakistan, the United States on Wednesday told top leadership in Islamabad that the "era of lip service was over" and it was now time to work plans and be very specific.
Dr Singh and Gandhi, along with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, had the discussion with Advani on the issue during the State dinner hosted for visiting Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai in New Delhi on Monday.
Terming the Kabul embassy bombing an attack on the Indo-Afghan friendship, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday declared that it would not deter New Delhi from continuing its reconstruction of the war-torn country and announced a fresh assistance worth $450 mn for it.
After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conveyed his concern over the Indian embassy attack in Kabul, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani met Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Colombo and discussed the incident for which Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence has been blamed.
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.
"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."
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.
