Karzai alleges US-Taliban collusion

AFGHANISTAN: President Hamid Karzai has accused the United States of colluding with the Taliban to justify its presence in Afghanistan, dumbfounding US officials during a problematic visit by the new Pentagon chief.

A joint news conference by Karzai and US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was cancelled Sunday, as the Afghan leader’s allegations compounded the troubled nature of the visit after a security scare from twin bomb attacks on Saturday.

“The bombs that were detonated in Kabul and Khost were not a show of force, they were serving America,” Karzai said in a televised speech, referring to the two suicide blasts in which 19 people were killed.

The president said the United States was in “daily” talks with the Taliban in Europe and Gulf countries, and that insurgent suicide attacks enabled the international military force to vindicate its deployment in Afghanistan.

“It is their slogan for 2014, scaring us that if the US is not here our people will be eliminated,” he said, as US-led combat troops begin a long withdrawal after more than a decade of war.

Karzai, who has frequently lashed out at perceived US slights through inflammatory language, was angered by a new delay to the planned transfer of the controversial Bagram jail from US to Afghan control.

He is also adamant that his government must be involved in any US-Taliban contacts, although the Islamist militia dismisses him as a US puppet and says no dialogue has taken place with the Americans since a year ago.

General Joseph Dunford, commander of the 100,000 NATO forces in Afghanistan, said Karzai’s allegations were “categorically false”.

“We have no reason to be colluding with the Taliban, we have no reason to be supporting instability in Afghanistan,” he said.

AFP