In a joint appearance at the White House on Wednesday, President Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai acknowledged recent strains in their relationship but insisted that the bond is stronger now than it ever has been.
“Obviously, there are going to be tensions in such a complicated, difficult environment,” Mr. Obama said, noting that Afghanistan has been engulfed in war for 30 years. “There are going to be setbacks, there are going to be times where our governments disagree on a particular tactic, but what I’m very confident about is that we share a broad strategy, one that I hope we can memorialize in a declaration by the end of this year.”
Many of the disagreements between the two leaders “were simply overstated,” he told reporters. The president also spoke at length about the pain and frustration he felt over reports of civilian Afghan casualties caused directly or indirectly by U.S. and allied military operations.
The visit by Mr. Karzai and his entourage of government ministers comes several weeks after Mr. Obama’s stealth trip to Kabul, where he pressed the temperamental Mr. Karzai to do more to root out corruption. Mr. Karzai later lashed out in the media, accusing the West of attempting to tarnish his victory in a controversial election and leaking what were supposed to be private conversations to the press.
Neither of the two men acknowledged the disagreements in detail, but both emphasized shared goals of denying a safe haven to members of the Taliban by improving security and governance in the country.
“We are in a campaign against terrorism together. There are days we are happy; there are days that we are not happy,” Mr. Karzai said. “I believe what you saw in the past few months is reflective of a deep and strong relationship.”
Mr. Obama acknowledged the relationship was allowed to “drift” in previous years, but said he has made repairing ties a critical priority. Indeed, in one of the biggest decisions of his presidency thus far, he ordered an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan to deal with the faltering military situation, more than half of which have deployed already.
While Mr. Obama cited progress in the training of Afghan security forces, he stressed the U.S. commitment to the country will not end next summer when American forces begin to withdraw.
“We are not suddenly, as of July 2011, finished with Afghanistan,” Mr. Obama said. “In fact, to the contrary, part of what I’ve tried to emphasize to President Karzai and the Afghan people but also to the American people is this is a long-term partnership that is not simply defined by our military presence.”
The lengthy press conference took place after a meeting in the Oval Office and before lunch at the White House. Mr. Karzai met with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton earlier in the week also paid what he described as a difficult visit to wounded U.S. veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
During the visit, Mr. Karzai has shared his plans for a three-day peace assembly, called a “jirga,” during which his government hopes to solicit ideas from Afghan citizens on how to reintegrate “nonideological” members of the Taliban into society. The United States has said any reconciliation efforts must be Afghan-led and require insurgents to put down their arms, renounce their ties to terrorism and accept Afghanistan’s constitution.
“The incentives for the Taliban to lay down arms, or at least portions of the Taliban to lay down arms and make peace with the Afghan government, in part depends on our effectiveness in breaking their momentum militarily,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s why General [Stanley] McChrystal is working so hard to clear out key population centers from Taliban control.”
Coalition forces have waged a 10-month campaign to root out violence in Afghanistan’s Helmand province to the south. Gen. McChrystal told reporters earlier this week that the reinforcements ordered by Mr. Obama will help the upcoming effort to secure the “spiritual center of the Taliban” in Kandahar.
On the problem of civilian casualties, Mr. Karzai said Mr. Obama expressed his concern about innocents being killed as a “human issue,” not a political issue, and noted the situation has improved with the arrival of Gen. McChrystal.
“I am ultimately accountable, just as General McChrystal is accountable, for somebody who’s not on the battlefield who got killed. And that is something I have to carry with me and that anybody who’s involved in the military operation has to carry with them,” Mr. Obama said.
Asked about his two visits with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mr. Karzai did not apologize for his relations with the controversial leader — whose country is suspected developing nuclear weapons — describing the Iranians as “brothers.” But he stressed that it should not be construed as an affront to his friendship with the United States.
“Iran is our neighbor and a brother, and we want to have the best of relations with them,” he said. “We wish that Afghanistan remains friendly to both and is not a place where we are seen as a playground by our neighbors in any way.”
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