KABUL: Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has once again criticized the United States’ anti-terror mission in Afghanistan, saying that Washington has failed to ensure peace and stability in Afghanistan.
“U.S also shares a great deal of responsibility for ignoring sanctuaries for years and for supporting those who provide support for extremism. We hope US will change its policy and not use pragmatic interests of its country at the cost of promotion of extremism elsewhere in the world,” Karzai said in an interview with an Indian TV channel.
He said U.S should be doing the same against terror havens beyond Afghanistan but, he made a differentiation between people of Pakistan who want peace and terror groups and those who support them.
In the interview, Karzai agreed with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent statement that Pakistan was the ‘mothership’ of terror in the region and also the biggest challenge to the economic growth of Afghanistan.
Karzai said boycotting SAARC was a diplomatic tool and he hoped it would pressurize Pakistan into recognizing that it needs to see this region differently.
He hoped that India and Afghanistan would not have to look at a SAARC minus Pakistan but said, “If we keep failing to make Pakistan realize then we should seek alternatives”.
