KABUL: The Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said the United States and its Western allies launched the war in Afghanistan for their own interests.
“Afghans died in a war that’s not ours,” Karzai said in an interview with the Washington Post published.
The Afghan president said that that the 12-year-old war was “for the US security and for the Western interest.”
Karzai also urged the US to end air raids in Afghanistan, saying that instead of Taliban militants, civilians are being killed in these airstrikes. He said that he will not sign the bilateral security agreement with Washington and that it is up to his successor to make the decision.
“My stand remains the same – that I cannot sign this BSA agreement with the United States without the launch of the peace process… [US] President [Barack] Obama said, ‘Well, the US can wait for the next president,” Karzai said.
The Afghan president stressed that the US must start peace talks with the Taliban and end raids on Afghan homes before asking Afghans to sign the deal.
Last week, the US President Barack Obama told the Pentagon to prepare for the possibility that no US troops will be in Afghanistan after 2014‚ as his Afghan counterpart has refused to sign a security deal, allowing US troops to remain in Afghanistan after the final withdrawal of the international force at the end of 2014.
