Karzai warns US over loyalties to Pakistan

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said if the United States and Pakistan ever went to war, his country would back Islamabad.

“If fighting starts between Pakistan and the US, we are beside Pakistan,” Mr Karzai said in an interview with private Pakistani television station GEO that aired this weekend. “If Pakistan is attacked and the people of Pakistan need Afghanistan’s help, Afghanistan will be there with you.”

He said that Kabul would not allow any nation, including the US, to dictate its policies.

Both Washington and Kabul have repeatedly said Pakistan is providing sanctuary to militant groups launching attacks in Afghanistan.

The scenario is exceedingly unlikely and appears to be less a serious statement of policy than an Afghan overture to Pakistan, just days after Mr Karzai and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Islamabad must do more to crack down on militants using its territory as a staging ground for attacks on Afghanistan.

The comments set off a firestorm of criticism in the country. Afghan MPs argued they were particularly hypocritical coming just weeks after the assassination of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani by a suicide bomber.

“Pakistan has never been honest with Afghanistan, and the nation of Afghanistan will never forget those things that happen here because of Pakistan”, Shah Gul Rezaye, a MP from Ghazni province said, citing Rabbani’s death and other violent incidents.