Karzai Details Vision for Long-Term Partnership With U.S.
By ALISSA J. RUBIN
NYT
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai for the first time publicly laid out his vision of a long-lasting agreement that could keep the American military in Afghanistan for years, in a speech to Afghans on Wednesday that seemed both a warning to neighboring Pakistan and Iran and an attempt to win over a skeptical domestic audience.
At turns nationalistic and pragmatic, Mr. Karzai, addressing the loya jirga, the traditional Afghan council gathering, called for a long-term agreement that would put detailed limits on American military operations while ensuring they could continue beyond the present 2014 deadline to withdraw troops. He evoked an image of a nation still fiercely proud, and even dangerous, if weakened by years of war.
“We should be respected as lions on our own soil,” he said, speaking for nearly an hour in a strong voice, although he looked tired. “In this case we are ready to sign a strategic partnership with the United States. If they want military facilities, we are ready to give them, but Afghanistan, its vision, its interests, should be clear.”
If his speech charted a confident path, it was also a very difficult one: trying to keep ambitious neighbors at bay by casting his lot with the Americans, convincing regional leaders hostile to an American presence that it is vital, and pinning the United States down to long-term military and financial help despite a budget crisis and electoral politics in Washington.
(More here.)
NYT
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai for the first time publicly laid out his vision of a long-lasting agreement that could keep the American military in Afghanistan for years, in a speech to Afghans on Wednesday that seemed both a warning to neighboring Pakistan and Iran and an attempt to win over a skeptical domestic audience.
At turns nationalistic and pragmatic, Mr. Karzai, addressing the loya jirga, the traditional Afghan council gathering, called for a long-term agreement that would put detailed limits on American military operations while ensuring they could continue beyond the present 2014 deadline to withdraw troops. He evoked an image of a nation still fiercely proud, and even dangerous, if weakened by years of war.
“We should be respected as lions on our own soil,” he said, speaking for nearly an hour in a strong voice, although he looked tired. “In this case we are ready to sign a strategic partnership with the United States. If they want military facilities, we are ready to give them, but Afghanistan, its vision, its interests, should be clear.”
If his speech charted a confident path, it was also a very difficult one: trying to keep ambitious neighbors at bay by casting his lot with the Americans, convincing regional leaders hostile to an American presence that it is vital, and pinning the United States down to long-term military and financial help despite a budget crisis and electoral politics in Washington.
(More here.)
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