*KABUL - Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has once again lashed out the United States, saying the U.S. Afghan strategy is not working and that the security situation has been deteriorated his war-weary country, Ariana News has reported.*
Speaking during an interview with China’s CGTN TV channel, Karzai said that the Afghan people call for change in the U.S. policy and when that happens peace would be ensured in Afghanistan.
“Unfortunately, it [the U.S. strategy] isn’t working at all. The security situation in Afghanistan is worsened considerably and the suffering of our people has increased considerably. It is exactly because of this, “ Karzai said. “Change means an end to war and end to violence and reaching peace for that the Afghan people believe there are two main responsible countries, one is the United States and there is Pakistan.”
Karzai also put doubts on the prospects of withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, saying that the U.S. military won’t leave Afghanistan “completely”.
“We don’t believe the United States will leave Afghanistan. They may reduce the presence of their troops in Afghanistan. But we don’t think they will leave completely. We don’t think they will leave their base in Afghanistan,” he said.
Karzai stressed that when the U.S. decided to leave Afghanistan, it would be important for regional and global powers mainly China take the initiative of creating two environments of guarantees – “from our neighbors towards Afghanistan especially Pakistan and from Afghanistan towards our neighbors especially Pakistan so Afghanistan can be stable and peaceful.”
The former president stressed that the U.S. presence was seen as “conducive” to the better development of peace in Afghanistan by neighbors.
“The presence of the U.S. in Afghanistan… is seen as creating or being conducive towards cooperation in Afghanistan rather than the environment of confrontation that we have today,” he said.
The former Afghan leader meanwhile, said that peace cannot only come by the efforts of Afghan government because according to him the foundation or original nature of conflict is foreign. He noted that the only way forward for achieving peace is that the Afghan government and Taliban should talk and to ensuring that he considered to the role of countries involved in the Afghan war highly important including the U.S. and Pakistan.
Karzai’s remarks come as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a surprise visit to Kabul last week called the U.S. strategy for Afghanistan and South Asia as effective and successful.