Afghan President Hamid Karzai was due to round up his Washington visit yesterday, after meeting congressional leaders and touring Arlington National Cemetery, where many US war dead from the conflict in Afghanistan are buried.
During the flagship event of the four-day visit intended to mend fences after months spent trading barbs, US President Barack Obama insisted on Wednesday that tensions between the US and Afghan governments were “overstated.”
The leaders met at the White House in the wake of awkward public exchanges that strained their alliance and complicated Obama’s gamble on a 30,000-strong troop surge designed to lay the groundwork for a US exit from the Afghan battlefield.
PHOTO: EPA
“There are going to be tensions in such a complicated, difficult environment and in a situation in which, on the ground, both Afghans and Americans are making enormous sacrifices,” Obama said.
An Oval Office meeting was followed by a press conference that served as both a public bonding session and an effort by Obama to convince the US public that genuine progress is being made.
Karzai put on an assured political performance, at odds with his tirades just weeks ago against foreign interference. He also shrugged off recent spats.
“We are in a campaign against terrorism together, there are days that we are happy. There are days that we are not happy,” said Karzai, wearing his trademark green cloak and sheepskin hat in the ornate East Room.
Only weeks ago, top Obama aides said Karzai’s claims that foreigners plotted fraud in Afghan elections were cause for “genuine” concern
In March, the US president told Karzai during a visit to Kabul that he must do more to fight corruption, but on Wednesday, Obama welcomed “progress” by Karzai on anti-corruption efforts, improved governance, and work toward credible parliamentary elections later this year.
“Of course, President Karzai and I both acknowledge that much more work needs to be done,” Obama said.
Obama said he was confident that slow but steady progress would allow him to meet his stated goal of starting to draw down US troop numbers by July next year, and was also “encouraged” by Pakistan’s actions against extremists.
Karzai later made the rounds on Capitol Hill and pleaded for patience in his much criticized fight against corruption.
He was scheduled to visit Fort Campbell, Kentucky, headquarters of the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division, today. The division deploys to Afghanistan.
Most senators gave Karzai positive reviews.
“We didn’t notice any scars ... Sounds like things are on a very even keel, very positive, we didn’t see any evidence of any lingering problem,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Democrat.
Obama also voiced support for Karzai’s efforts to woo wavering Taliban members back into Afghan society, but only if they renounced al-Qaeda and violence.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
RSS