US President Barack Obama has accepted and endorsed a proposal from Afghanistan to participate in an inter-agency review of US policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a top US envoy said on Sunday, according to dpa.
In a joint press conference along with Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Karzai said that he had asked Obama to include an Afghan team to have a role in the US review that will look at both military and civilian aspects of the US and NATO war against the resurgent Taliban.
The review, which was ordered by the US president earlier this month, is expected to be completed before the NATO alliance's summit in April.
"I have received from ambassador Holbrooke the verbal message of President Obama and I am very, very thankful that President Obama has accepted my proposal of Afghanistan joining the strategic review of the war against terrorism," Karzai told reporters in his fortified presidential palace.
He said a team led by Afghan Foreign Affairs Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta would travel to Washington to take part in the discussion.
Speaking at the same news gathering, Holbrooke, who arrived in Afghanistan on Thursday on his first trip since being appointed envoy, said "We have made a trip here on behalf of the new administration to reaffirm America's commitment to the efforts in Afghanistan against the Taliban and al Qaeda."
Holbrooke's visit to the war-wracked country comes amid increasing tension between Kabul and Washington over the civilian casualties caused by the US and NATO-led military operations against the Taliban and al-Qaeda hideouts.
"There is tension between us and the US government on issues of civilian casualties, arrests of Afghans, nightly raids on homes and the casualties they cause," Karzai said in an interview with Sir David Frost on al-Jazeera television on Friday.
The downward spiral in relations is also widely seen by the fact that Karzai's government is under severe fire by its western allies, specially the US, for its inability to curb endemic administrative corruption, drug production and the worsening security situation.
Sunday's media appearance seemed to have cooled down the simmering tension between the two important allies on the war against terrorism.
Karzai welcomed the recent agreement between the Afghan defence ministry and NATO that gives the Afghan troops a greater role to lead anti-Taliban operations, specially the night assaults, which they believe cause more civilians casualties.
The new agreement also gives the Afghan troops authority to search Afghan homes and arrest villagers suspected of having links to Taliban members.
"We have come here to learn and to listen to your points of view," Holbrooke said in his first media appearance since arriving in the region last week.
"For President Karzai I have carried a personal message from president Obama: A message of support for the people of Afghanistan and for the democratically elected government of Afghanistan," he said.
Karzai also came up with softened comments.
"I will ask him (Holbrooke) to take the message of the Afghan president and the Afghan people back to the American people and to the American president for our friendship and the gratitude for all you have done," he said.
Holbrooke visited Islamabad this week and is expected to travel to New Delhi before ending his regional tour.
...