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Afghan President Hamid Karzai has reiterated his refusal to sign a key US security pact until a peace process is under way with the Taliban. "Afghanistan will absolutely not accept or sign anything under pressure," he said at a news conference on Saturday. [snip] "If the US is not willing to accept our conditions, they can leave anytime and we will continue our lives," he told reporters in the Afghan capital, Kabul.[snip] He called on the US to be a friend not a rival, but then compared them directly with colonial Britain in the 19th Century - imposing deals on...

Afghanistan's president says the U.S. can no longer carry out military operations or airstrikes and must jump-start peace talks with the Taliban before his country signs a security deal to keep American troops in Afghanistan after 2014.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed on a cooperation pact with Iran, despite continuing to resist signing a security agreement with the U.S., Reuters reported. Karzai made the deal with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran Sunday. "Afghanistan agreed on a long-term friendship and cooperation pact with Iran," Karzai's spokesman Aimal Faizi said, according to Reuters. "The pact will be for long-term political, security, economic and cultural cooperation, regional peace and security."

(snip) (Karzai) "Last year, during my visit to Washington, in a very important briefing a day before I met U.S. President [Barack Obama], his national security adviser Tom Donilon, and senior White House officials, generals, and intelligence officials, the national security adviser met with me. He told me: "The Taliban are not our enemies and we don't want to fight them." "

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has refused to sign a security deal with the United States, the White House said, and Washington may have to resort to the "zero option" of withdrawing all American troops from the strife-torn country next year, as it did in Iraq. Karzai told U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice in Kabul on Monday that the United States must put an immediate end to military raids on Afghan homes and demonstrate its commitment to peace talks before he would sign a bilateral security pact, Karzai's spokesman said. The White House said Karzai had outlined new conditions in...

An assembly of Afghan elders endorsed a crucial security deal on Sunday to enable U.S. troops to operate in the country beyond next year, but President Hamid Karzai left the matter up in the air by refusing to say whether he would sign it into law. The gathering, known as the Loya Jirga, had been convened by the president to debate the pact which outlines the legal terms of continued U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. It voted in favor and advised Karzai sign it promptly. But Karzai, in his final remarks to the four-day meeting, said he would not sign...

The United States and Afghanistan have reached an impasse in their talks over the role that US forces will play here beyond next year, officials from both countries say, raising the distinct possibility of a total withdrawal — an outcome that the Pentagon’s top military commanders dismissed just months ago. (snip) This week, the administration also considered sending Secretary of State John Kerry, who has a good relationship with Karzai, to personally intervene in the talks, US and Afghan officials said. But officials decided Kerry’s time was better spent on an Asian trip that President Obama canceled because of the...

Washington - BJP has cautioned the United States against any peace talks with the Taliban arguing the terrorist outfit is unlikely to change its behaviour and as reconciliation effort would be a futile exercise. "The eagerness to engage with elements that want to return Afghanistan to the status of 'Islamic Emirates' in the hope that they would deliver, and in the process humiliating and weakening the democratic leadership, doesn't behove well for the region," the BJP President Rajnath Singh said yesterday. He was speaking at a conference on Afghanistan at the Capitol Hill jointly organised by the Foundation for India...

Increasingly frustrated by his dealings with President Hamid Karzai, President Obama is giving serious consideration to speeding up the withdrawal of United States forces from Afghanistan and to a “zero option” that would leave no American troops there after next year, according to American and European officials.

"Militants launched a pre-dawn attack Tuesday on a Kabul guesthouse serving U.S. engineers and military contractors, killing at least eight people" ************snip************** The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. In recent weeks, insurgents have ramped up attacks on both military and civilian targets, with several of the assaults and bombings occurring in the capital. ***********snip****************** A rift between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and officials in Washington has held up the talks. Karzai was angered that the U.S. did not insist that the Taliban renounce violence, communicate directly with the Afghan government and recognize the country’s constitution before being allowed...

With the US being too eager to hold talks with the Taliban, which opened their political office in Qatar recently, it’s now official that America's much-hyped war on terror is all but over. What does it mean for Afghanistan and the rest of the world, particularly India? With the 2014 deadline for withdrawal from Afghanistan fast approaching and the International Security Assistance Force’s military effort unable to break the back of the Taliban insurgency, the US appears to have concluded (one daresay wrongly) that it has run out of options for effecting a responsible and honourable exit from the Afghan...

SNIP A Reuters reporter at the palace said the attack began soon after 6.30 a.m. (0200 GMT) on the building's east gate. Reporters were gathering for a press event with President Hamid Karzai. SNIP

As the Obama administration tries to salvage its Taliban talks initiative, the group continues to boast of—and exaggerate—the battlefield exploits of the “Islamic emirate’s” holy warriors as they face “the invading terrorist forces” of the U.S.-led coalition and their Afghan “puppets.” Talks between U.S. and Taliban officials, initially scheduled to have begun in Doha on Thursday, were delayed after Afghan President Hamid Karzai reacted angrily to the way the Taliban presented itself at the opening of its office in the Qatari capital earlier this week. Karzai was unhappy that the Taliban declared the office to represent the “Islamic Emirate Of...

A British soldier awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross died in vain because of an order to prevent damage to Taliban mud huts, an inquest will be told this summer. Colleagues of Lance Corporal James Ashworth – who won the UK’s highest gallantry medal – are expected to tell a coroner they were denied powerful weapons to take on the Taliban due to fears mortars and rockets could damage buildings. Soldiers from the Grenadier Guards will claim James died because he was forced to crawl to within a few feet of an enemy sniper in a mud hut while clutching a...

"The Afghan president on Wednesday suspended talks with the United States on a new security deal to protest the way his government was being left out of initial peace negotiations with the Taliban meant to find a way to end the nearly 12-year war. Karzai's statement followed an announcement Tuesday by the U.S. and the Taliban that they would pursue bilateral talks in Qatar before the Afghan government was brought in."

US to open direct Taliban talks The US is to open direct peace talks with the Taliban, senior White House officials have announced. The first meeting is due to take place in the coming days in Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban have just opened their first official overseas office. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government is also sending a delegation to Qatar to talk to the Taliban. The announcement came on the day Nato handed over security for the whole of Afghanistan to government forces. US officials said prisoner exchanges would be one topic for discussion with the Taliban,...

In yesterdays hearings on Benghazi, Gregory Hicks told the House Oversight Committee that the State Department warned him about cooperating with investigators and retaliated against him for challenging the bogus talking points about a “spontaneous demonstration.” Mark Thompson further testified to being cut out of the loop after he insisted that FEST should be activated, and Eric Nordstrom dismissed the supposedly independent ARB effort as a whitewash aimed at protecting senior officials in the State Department. Those aren’t the only complaints coming from career professionals within the Obama administration. Politico reports that the Inspector General for the reconstruction of Afghanistan...

KABUL — After three tours in Afghanistan, the departing U.S. second-in-command for the country stayed on message but sounded a note of caution at a farewell news conference Tuesday. Lt. Gen. James Terry referred to the main issues often cited by coalition leaders as markers of success in Afghanistan — increased access to education, healthcare and cell phone service for Afghans and the increased capabilities of the Afghan Security Forces. But he stopped short of predicting the demise of what has proved to be a stubborn insurgency. “I’m not going to make any predictions,” he said. “My first time here...

Tens of millions of U.S. dollars in cash were delivered by the CIA in suitcases, backpacks and plastic shopping bags to the office of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai for more than a decade, according to the New York Times, citing current and former advisers to the Afghan leader. The so-called "ghost money" was meant to buy influence for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) but instead fuelled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington's exit strategy from Afghanistan, the newspaper quoted U.S. officials as saying. "The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan", one American official said, "was the United States."

KABUL, Afghanistan, April 27 (UPI) -- The Taliban this weekend announced their summer offensive was officially under way in Afghanistan under the code name Khalid bin Walid. Khaama Press said Saturday the insurgents issued a statement warning Western military commanders they could expect a wave of so-called insider attacks as well as strikes against airfields and diplomatic targets. The Taliban also sent a message to Afghan security troops saying the best way for them to remain safe would be to refuse to serve the current U.S.-backed government. Civilians were urged to stay clear of foreign outposts. snip