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Afghanistan Supports Pakistan's Stance on US Drone Strikes: Karzai
 [Tolo News] Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... said that he fully backed Pakistain Prime Minister  Nawaz Sharif... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... 's stance on the issue of US drone strikes inside Pakistain. In an interview with a Pak private TV channel Geo, Karzai said, "The issue of drones is between the US and Pakistain, I am not in favor of drone attacks in Pakistain, I am against it and I endorse Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's stand on this. I will stand with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif against drone attacks, just as I have stood against American military operations in Afghanistan where non-combatants were killed, where civilians were maimed, where civilian homes were destroyed. I will fully stand with Pakistain against any activity by any foreign power that causes civilian casualties in Pakistain." Karzai expressed disappointment over the way the war on terror was being executed‚ saying it is not going to get us any relief. Answering to a question‚ he regretted that the raids in the war against terror were not hitting the right targets‚ causing civilian casualties and material losses. Pakistain's new Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, vented his anger on the recent US drone strikes and accused his country's military of lying to Paks about cooperating with the CIA to eliminate terrorism in the northwest tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. "The policy of protesting against drone strikes for public consumption, while working behind the scenes to make them happen, is not acceptable," Sharif said last week, according to an official statement issued after the first meeting of his cabinet. But stopping US drone strikes, which he and other Pak politicians have characterised as a violation of their country's illusory sovereignty, seems hardly certain. Two strikes have hit Pakistain since Sharif's ascent to the prime minister's post was assured -- one on May 30, which killed the Deputy Chief of the Pak Taliban, and the other Friday, which killed seven unidentified suspected bully boys. Apparently, continuation of drone attacks is one of the main barriers of the bully boy's movements in some parts of Pakistain. "Karzai himself has said that bully boy's hideouts must be targeted out of Afghanistan's geography. Karzai's recent speeches are not in favour of Afghanistan," Shukria Barakzai, Member of Afghan Parliament told TOLOnews. Posted by: Fred 2013-06-16 |
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