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| Afghanistan |
| US Expects Next Afghan Leader To Do More |
| 2009-10-13 |
| [Quqnoos] Secretary Hillary Clinton in a trip to London said Afghanistan's next leader, who is expected to be announced this week unless an run-off election required, needs to build better ties with the US as well as the Afghan people. Mrs Clinton added that the US was "anxiously awaiting" the outcome of the 20 August presidential elections, which was marred by allegations of massive fraud, according to a BBC article. Preliminary results unveiled last month placed incumbent Hamid Karzai on the top with about 55% of the vote and his closest rival, Abdullah Abdullah, in the second with nearly 28%. "We are very clear that if this election results in him being re-elected, there must be a new relationship between him and the people of Afghanistan," Clinton told the BBC's Today programme. She added President Karzai, if re-elected, must improve relationship between the Afghan government and other countries involved in Afghanistan's stabilisation process. Mrs Clinton said the next president would also have to do more to train and deploy Afghan forces to take over from foreign troops, the article further added. "It is a more complex picture than sometimes emerges from snapshot views. But clearly we expect more, we're going to be working towards more," the BBC quoted Secretary Clinton as saying. President Barack Obama and his administration seem tougher on their Afghan partner to work harder and apparently try to put more responsibility on the next Afghan government. President Obama is currently reviewing his Afghan strategy whether to deploy extra troops on the ground as the war enters a fierce stage eight years after its beginning. The top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McCrystal, has formally requested up to an additional 40,000 troops to overcome the growing Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Do more than grab with both hands and take it brown from taliban - al quaeda - isi puppetmasters? Could be a tall order... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2009-10-13 00:27 |