Afghan president advocates strategic partnership with U.S. amid Taliban threats

Afghan president advocates strategic partnership with U.S. amid Taliban threats

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday that having strategic partnership with the United States would benefit Afghanistan.

"Having strategic relations with the United States is in the benefit of Afghanistan, but we have preconditions in this regard. Our conditions are that the United States and NATO forces should stop searching Afghan houses and night operations, should halt having parallel establishments with the Afghan administration and should respect our national sovereignty from now on," Karzai said in his speech at the Loya Jirga or traditional grand assembly.

The parallel establishments, according to Afghan officials, means the United States and NATO-run civilian-military Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) and private security firms run by foreigners.

President Karzai had in the past criticized the PRTs, private security companies and night raid operations, calling on NATO-led forces to stop searching houses and harming civilians during military operations.

"Our relations with the U.S. should be based on equity and be a relations between two sovereign independent countries," Karzai told the audience in his hour-long key speech.

In his address, the Afghan president described Afghans as "lion ", saying although the United States is a powerful and wealthy country dealing with the lion, the lion does not like anyone to kill or take away its kids.

In parts of his speech, the Afghan president pointed out that Afghanistan in spite of having strategic partnership with the United States would also have friendly relations with its neighbors, such as Iran, Pakistan, China and Russia and assured that "Afghan soil would not be used against anyone."

President Karzai also emphasized that "fighting terrorism in Afghan villages would not help to win the war on terror; rather the terrorists should be targeted in their sanctuaries."

The Afghan government has said that the Taliban and its associated groups including militants loyal to al-Qaida network have been using Pakistan's tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan's eastern region as their safe havens.

More than 2,500 people including tribal elders, lawmakers and government functionaries, according to officials, attended the assembly to discuss the proposed strategic partnership with the United States and government-initiated peace talks with the Taliban and other armed opposition groups in the militancy-plagued country.

"Any decisions taken by the Jirga participants would be respected and implemented," said Karzai.

The decisions, taken by the four-day Loya Jirga would be forwarded to the parliament for ratification.

In a statement released to media, Taliban militants fighting Afghan and NATO-led troops described the Loya Jirga as a trick to legitimize the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan and vowed to disrupt it.

English.news.cn   2011-11-16 16:53:37