US snubbed calls to hit ‘terror havens’ in Pakistan: Karzai

Former Afghan president suspects US assisting IS in Afghanistan

Former Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai has claimed the United States declined Kabul’s requests to attack terrorist ‘safe havens’ in Pakistan as it is a close ally in the war on terror.

In an interview with BBC Pashto, the Afghan leader said his country has told “the US stationed commanders and ISAF chief in Kabul in several meetings” to “attack those safe havens in FATA and Pakistan.” However the request had been shot down by the US as they consider Pakistan a “close ally in the war on terror.”



Urging for a home-grown policy, he stressed that it is important to assure the neighbours [Pakistan] that it will not hurt their interests. “The Afghan soil should not be used against any of our neighbours in the regions,” he said.

Karzai warned the “new US policy will pave way for fresh and prolong conflicts in the war ravaged country Afghanistan and the new strategy will deprive Afghans of their dreams of peace and stability.”

In a conversation with Russia Today earlier this week, the former president questioned the emergence of Islamic State in Afghanistan under the watch of the US forces and intelligence agencies. “US came to defeat extremism but we have more of it today, so the question is why?” he asked.

He noted that “unmarked nonmilitary colour helicopters” were supplying  weapons across Afghanistan, hinting at the possibility of the US assisting Islamic State.



Also accusing Pakistan of helping the United States weaken a tolerant Afghan tradition system and turn religion into an extreme tool against the Soviet, Karzai said the US was now doing the same with Pakistan.

Referring to the Trump administration’s new policy on South Asia, he said the Afghan people did not see it as helping the country but as a tool to undermine others [Pakistan] through Afghanistan. He alleged that the US strategy was to “prevent integration and economic development of the region.”

“We don’t want to be tools in a big game… We want to extend a hand of friendship to Pakistan and ask them to salvage ourselves from this conspiracy.”

He reminisced the soviet war that displaced thousands of Afghans. “When we became refugees after soviet invasion, Pakistan people welcomed us tremendously and unbelievably as brothers and sisters. And we lived [in Pakistan] as if we were in our homes.”