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4 February 2017

Trump should go after terrorism in Pakistan: Karzai

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Suhasini Haidar

Days after losing two relatives in the Kandahar Governor’s house bomb blast, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the incoming U.S. President must keep the promises on ending terror camps in Pakistan that President Obama failed to.

Mr. Karzai confirmed claims made by his former aide Aimal Faizi, who wrote in The Hindu this week about letters President Obama had written to then-President Karzai in 2012, where he had expressly promised to “degrade safe havens” in Pakistan, particularly for the Haqqani group and groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba that carried out attacks in Afghanistan.

“He [Mr. Obama] gave many such promises to me, and my disappointment with him was the reason for the difficulties in our [U.S.-Afghanistan] relationship,” Mr. Karzai said in an interview on Friday.

“If they were targeting extremism, not Afghans, they knew where it was coming from. It was coming from beyond our borders, [from Pakistan]. That’s where they should have gone, that’s where President Trump should go. I don’t mean war, I mean political action there must get it right, in Pakistan,” he added.

The former Afghan President had been in India for a conference, but had also been attending to his cousin, businessman Hashim Karzai, who had been flown to India for treatment after he was grievously wounded in a bomb blast on January 10 at the Governor’s guest house in Kandahar.

Mr. Hashim Karzai succumbed to his injuries on Monday, and another relative of former President Karzai: Afghan diplomat Yama Quraishi had died on the spot, along with five UAE diplomats who were present when a powerful blast believed to have been hidden in the furniture ripped through their meeting room. The governor of Kandahar and the UAE envoy to Kabul were also injured in the attack.

The Kandahar blast has set off a massive blame-game in the region, with Afghanistan blaming the Haqqani group and Pakistan for the blast, a charge India concurred with in its condemnation of the blast.

The Taliban, however, denied any involvement it the attack. Speculation has grown that the UAE diplomats were targeted as a ‘warning’ over India and UAE coming closer, with Crown Prince and deputy supreme commander Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan expected in India next week as the Republic Day Chief Guest.

Meanwhile, UAE security officials, who refused to blame any other country until the results of its enquiry come in, have held Afghan security “directly responsible” for the blast, with even some insinuations that the Kandahar police chief, who left the Governors compound minutes before the blast had been tipped off.

Calling the claims of an “inside job” that had allowed the bomb to be placed inside the heavily guarded compound “far-fetched”, Mr. Karzai said he understood the UAE government’s “sorrow” as an Afghan who had been bereaved as well.

“It is indeed very sad and should never have happened. We have to study how explosive material got inside the governors house, why security was lax. There are too many painful questions and need an in depth inquiry,” Mr. Karzai told The Hindu.

Mr. Karzai said he welcomed Mr. Trump’s good relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and hoped that they would together ask Pakistan “for end to terrorism as a state policy.” “Mr. Trump must also speak to all of others in Afghanistan’s neighbourhood and work with Russia China and India to fight terrorism.

“It is the U.S. that has lost the support of Russia and China and others in Afghanistan, because the war has been prolonged without any outcome, or action on Pakistan, and the creation of more radical groups like D’aesh that they are more concerned about. I am glad President Trump and President Putin get along and I hope this translates into better policies for Afghanistan,” Mr. Karzai concluded.

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