Karzai threat to join Taleban

Published on Monday 5 April 2010 22:28

AFGHAN leader Hamid Karzai has threatened to abandon the political process and join the Taleban if he continues to come under outside pressure to reform.

• Afghan President Hamid Karzai (Centre) leaves a mosque in Kandahar. Picture: Getty

Mr Karzai made his statement at a closed-door meeting with selected Afghan MPs – just days after instigating a diplomatic controversy by alleging that foreigners had been behind the fraud in last year's disputed elections.

Some MPs dismissed his latest outburst as deliberate exaggeration, but it added to the impression that the president is growing increasingly erratic and unable to exert authority without attacking his foreign backers. He relies on tens of thousands of foreign soldiers, including 9,000 from the UK, to fight the insurgency and prop up his government.

"He said that, 'If I come under foreign pressure, I might join the Taleban'," Farooq Marenai, who represents the eastern province of Nangarhar, said.

"He said rebelling would change to resistance," Mr Marenai said, apparently suggesting the militant movement would be redefined as one of resistance against a foreign occupation, rather than a rebellion against an elected government.

Mr Marenai said Mr Karzai appeared nervous at the talks on Saturday and demanded to know why parliament last week had rejected legal reforms that would have strengthened the president's authority over the country's electoral institutions.

Two other MPs said Mr Karzai had twice raised the threat to join the insurgency.

But they said they felt the president was pandering to hardline or pro-Taleban MPs and had no real intention of joining the militant group, which is largely composed of his Pashtun kinsmen.

Mr Karzai repeated his claims about interference in the Afghan elections yesterday.

"What I said about the election was all true," he told the BBC.

He was asked: "The US carried out the fraud?" He replied: "That's exactly what happened; I mentioned the elements who did it."

Mr Karzai went on: "We want to continue this alliance and partnership with the United States and the rest of the world, in the interest of both of us. But this has to be understood by all that Afghanistan is a sovereign country."

In his speech last Thursday, Mr Karzai said foreigners had bribed and threatened election workers in last year's election.

He singled out the former deputy head of the United Nations mission in Kabul – American diplomat Peter Galbraith – as well as the French head of a European Union monitoring team.

While he did not explicitly single out the US in his comments last week, he said: "The votes of the Afghan nation were in the control of an embassy."

In his weekend meeting, the MPs said Mr Karzai also dismissed concerns over possible damage his comments had caused to relations with the US.

He told them he had already explained himself in a telephone conversation on Saturday with secretary of state Hillary Clinton, that came after the White House described his comments on the election as "troubling".

Tim Ripley, a defence analyst at the Centre of Defence and International Security Studies, said: "It appears that he is losing the plot. This follows on from his recent comments that he believed the Americans rigged the elections.

"I don't believe he would carry out such an action (joining the Taleban], but it is evidence of the strain he appears to be under.

"The trigger appears to be the Americans' impending assault on Kandahar, as part of which they plan to engage and reform the local administration of the area, which is carried out by many members of Mr Karzai's family."

This is a reference to Ahmad Wali Khan Karzai, the president's half-brother, who heads the Kandahar provincial council.

He has been linked to the opium trade in the region and with helping to rig the August election in the president's favour.

Speaking of the repeated allegations of US vote-rigging, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said: "The remarks are troubling, and the substance of the remarks is simply just not true."

The Foreign Office in London declined to comment directly on Mr Karzai's warning.

Analysis:

Rob Corbidge: Karzai seems to be feeling the strain as pressure grows