Karzai to hold loya jirga to decide peace strategy
Karzai made the comments in a televised address to the nation broadcast on state television after his spokesman said the president was reviewing his strategy for negotiations with the Taliban following Rabbani's death.
The president has faced conflicting calls from supporters in recent days, some of whom have urged him to drop talks with the Taliban entirely and others saying they must continue.
Although Karzai criticised Pakistan for playing a "double game" on terrorism in Afghanistan, he also stressed that negotiations should go through Islamabad in order to get to the Taliban.
"In a traditional loya jirga, will be held soon, the representatives of Afghanistan will be asked (about the situation) and we will do according to their wishes," Karzai said.
The peace discussions will be held at that event, Karzai said, adding it would take place "soon" but giving no further details.
Many Afghans are suspicious of Pakistan's connections to the Taliban-led insurgency in their country.
"After all the destruction and misery, the double game towards Afghanistan and the use of terrorism as an excuse still continues," Karzai said.
"Pakistan has not supported our efforts to bring peace and security to Afghanistan, which is very unfortunate."
But despite this condemnation, Karzai nonetheless restated the view that negotiations had to go through Pakistan in order to get to the Taliban.
"Peace is the sacred desire of the people of Afghanistan. To achieve that we have to try more but we have to define first who should we talk to for peace, we have revise the ways of getting to peace," he said.
"We are in fact dealing with governments, not with forces linked to them, therefore, we have to talk with those who have authority and deal with them."
Rabbani was assassinated at his Kabul home last month by a turban bomber who was thought to be a peace emissary from the Taliban.
A statement released by Karzai's presidential palace Sunday said new evidence showed that Rabbani's killer was "a citizen of Pakistan".
Afghan officials have also charged Rabbani's murder was planned by the Afghan Taliban's leadership body, the Quetta Shura, in Pakistan. But the militant group has not claimed responsibility for the killing.
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The right way to do, if they don't even have power to make decisions, they why talk to them, why not to them who holds their braces. I'm hopeful the Loya Jarga will help.
Karzai stop wasting peoples time. Wait for the email from Obama; he will have exact instructions on what to do. In the meantime have some kabuli pulao
President Hamid Karzai should also ask UN to investigate this assination. No one can dispute UN's conclusion as ALL countries are members of it.
So wait a second. This guy expects the situation in Afghanistan (from any standpoint be it education, society, politics, religion etc) to get better, by using literally antiquated methods of governance and basically running the country like his own personal tribe, knowing that tribal systems have very distinct heirarchies of control that don't let power trickle down beyond a precious few?
Yeahhh Karzai, you winning bro.
Loya Jirga, is anathor circus, like the APC conference, which the governments hold when its clueless and paralyzed.
And he will hold this loya jirga with President Barack Husain Obama, Adm Mike Mullen and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Karzai is a puppet.