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...
will travel to Pakistain this month in the hope of breathing life into moribund grinding of the peace processor with the Taliban and mending a frayed relationship between the neighbors, Afghan officials said on Monday.
The role of Pakistain is seen as critical to efforts to get the Afghan Taliban to sit down to talks about ending the 12-year war as most foreign troops prepare to pull out of Afghanistan by the end of next year.
Peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in the capital of the Gulf State of Qatar, Doha, were announced in June only to be canceled following Karzai's anger over the Taliban displaying a banner and a flag, harking back to their repressive rule over Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
"I can confirm that President Karzai is travelling to Pakistain later this month," Afghanistan's ambassador to Islamabad, Omer Daudzai, told Rooters.
The trip will be Karzai's first visit to Pakistain since 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...
was elected.
Many had hoped Sharif's election would lead to a reset in the relationship. Those hopes were dashed after Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry accused Pakistain of having raised the idea of power-sharing between the Kabul government and the Taliban. Pakistain denied the accusation.
Karzai has made 19 trips to Pakistain since coming to power in 2002, and has come away with many promises, but few results.
Afghanistan has long accused Pakistain of playing a double game regarding the Taliban, with some Afghan officials saying their neighbor makes public pronouncements about peace but allows elements of its military and intelligence complex to play a spoiling role.
Karzai will visit Pakistain from August 26 - 28. The leadership of the High Peace Council, the body created by Karzai in 2010 to broker peace with the Taliban, will also attend, a front man said.