Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday said Afghanistan would not face a doomsday scenario in 2014, the set date for the final withdrawal of NATO and US troops fighting the Taliban insurgency, dpa reported.
In a press conference held at his fortified Kabul palace, Karzai also slammed the Western media for "promoting fear among the population."
The Western media is waging "a psychological war that after the foreign soldiers withdraw in 2014, Afghanistan would face doomsday, or that a civil war would take place, or the Taliban would return," he told reporters.
"We know this propaganda is a psychological war and is meant to scare us that if the foreigners are not here, there will be destruction," Karzai said.
"We have to let (the West) know that Afghanistan will not forget its national interest just because of some scary reports."