Karzai urges Pakistan to reconsider Bonn boycott
Karzai's deputy spokesman Siamak Herawi told AFP that Pakistan was an important participant in the conference aimed at bridging peace after 10 years of war against the Taliban, and expressed hope that they would ultimately attend.
"President Hamid Karzai called Prime Minister Gilani and officially asked the Pakistan government to participate in the Bonn conference," said Herawi.
"We regard Pakistan as an important country and are optimistic they will attend the Bonn conference".
Gilani's office issued a statement confirming that Karzai had asked the prime minister to reconsider.
Gilani "said that Pakistan had been extending complete cooperation for peace and stability in Afghanistan" said the statement.
"However, he further added that how could a country whose own sovereignty and territorial integrity was violated from Afghan soil play such a constructive role?"
Also, Afghanistan foreign ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai told AFP that "we regard Pakistan as an important country in the region, we hope our Pakistani brothers will be there."
Merkel 'very sorry' about Pakistan boycott
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she was "very sorry" about Pakistan's announced boycott of the conference next week on the future of Afghanistan and would try to convince it to attend.
Merkel said Germany would still "see what could be done to change" Islamabad's decision to bow out of the meeting in the western German city, taken in protest at Nato air strikes which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
"We are both interested in constructive development of Afghanistan," Merkel told reporters at a joint press conference with visiting King Abdullah II of Jordan.
"Which is why I consider the conference hosted by the (German) foreign minister to be very important. We always said that conflicts can only be resolved in the region and Pakistan is part of this region which is why we are very sorry that this cancellation came today."
Merkel said that Berlin had not given up on convincing Islamabad to reverse its decision and attend the Bonn meeting, which will bring together foreign ministers from around 100 countries to discuss commitments to the war-ravaged country after the withdrawal of Nato troops in 2014.
"I understand Pakistan's concern about the loss of human life due to Nato troops but this should not distract from the fact that this Afghanistan conference is a very, very important conference," she said.
"There was a loya jirga (grand assembly) in Afghanistan and there is now a very, very good chance for a possible political process. On the one hand I can understand (the boycott) but on the other, we will see what still can be done."
A Pakistani official told AFP that Islamabad would boycott Monday's conference in Bonn over the deadly Nato air strikes at the weekend.
COMMENTS (51)
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@Afghan: You are wasting your breath, with these Ghairatmands !!!
@Imran Wisal Shah: My response to Pakistani is not sarcasm but rather a matter of fact. And we Afghans tend to maintain healthy relations with both 'brother' and 'friend', however, our 'brother' always suspects our friendship for some sort of conspiracy- which in fact is not.
@ Afghan et al.
But there's still a difference between a neighbor who offers candies and a brother who responds sternly under certain conditions/circumstances. Now you decide who you'd support. I'd always go for the brother bound not only by religion but also by flesh and blood.
@ Pakistani:
Well, India has no relations with the terrorists in Afghanistan.
I think Karzai should rather invite its strategic partner India.
It is shameful indeed. What more could be said of Karzai's reaction than that he is a stooge of the US administration and least representative of his people and their aspirations. Always has been. Shameful.
As this was intentional attack and the target was carefully selecterd to be the regular Pakistan Army not the Godforsaken FC. Therefore, Pakiatnis are feeling the maximum pain. One of the desired result was to bring Pakistan into open & to sideline it from the international community like Bonn Peace Conference. It is known that participation of Pakistan in Bonn Peace confrence does not matter, it has to do what it is doing for the last 30 years .i.e sponsering mullas to have foregin policy or other material gains. Those of us who thinks that Russia & China will come to the party in our quest for sponsering mollas to fix India, Bangladesh & Afhanistan, are closing their eyes & brain for too much love of Pakistan. The bottom line is that we are on on our quick march to be decalred as terrorist state, isolated from international community, eating gross & fighting with each other until taken over by Taliban. It is not a bad scenario though, at least we will go straight to paradise after serviving for a while on gross.
Mr. karzai, For Pakistan to Take you seriously you must first shed your Nato costume maybe then we may consider your suggestion.
How can possibly attend the Bonn conference? It's time for the region to cool off and they should reschedule the conference. Pakistan needs to look after its own interests because it has been made the scapegoat of the West for far too long. Why can't Pakistan just ship all of the Afghan refugees to Germany to attend the Bonn conference. After all , there are thousands of Afghani asylum seekers who have smuggled themselves into every Western European and North American nation. Let them take the rest off Pakistan and let Pakistan seal the border with Afghanistan. No one in Pakistan wants any more aid if it means the death of more innocent civilians and soldiers.
Everyone should know by now that Karzai's statements are always made up of two parts. The first one nobody should really invest much thought into and a second one actually worth commenting on. The first is practice where people see it and point out his obvious mistakes and then the second one is the final draft worth actual attention.
So, save those shots you've been dying to take a little while longer or you'll waste them.
The only reason Mr. Karzai is asking pakistan to join the Bonn is reconstuction of his palace and his bank account. The last person you can trust on this planet is Karzai. i guess we shoudl stop begging for him and focus on our own people. all Pakistan will got from Afghans is Heroin, Opium, AK47 , terrorists, refugees and blames on every international level , we should close the borders with them as high inflation in pakistan is mainly due to sumgling to afghanistan. STOP this NONsense Mr. Karzai.
@Menon
What about India ????????
Mother of all the terrorist activities India + Israel
karzai is not a friend of Pakistan and never a friend of Pakistan. Infact he is routinely anti-Pakistan and maligns pakistany's at every chance.
@Dee Cee: And Afghans should let us hold our part of Jammu & Kashmir so that we can keep our half million soldiers in Srinagar to further increase our record of 80,000 Kashmiris our forces have had the honor to kill. We will ignore those 80,000 Kashmiris who held same passport as those 161 who unfortunately, died in Mumbai but we won't care about those 80k since they were some far away mountain people? Not that I care more about your part of Kashmir but at least don't be hypocrite.
This man cannot be trusted. He does not represent the majority of Afghan people. He is just a puppet who has back stabbed us multiple times. He can go ask his friends in India to help out. ta ta...
@MD Oh I know that. Inorder to protect the rest of the world (including the Indians) we have been dragged in this endless war and paid price in blood and money. When people say oh what about isi and abbotabad, they need to also ask what about 9/11 and cia, mumbai and raw, 7/7 attacks and MI5? Howcome the cia was unaware for months while 19 men planned and trained and enrolled into flying schools to carry out the plot? What was the super stealth raw upto, when a bunch of measely armed militants infiltrated the city and carried out the attack for 2 days? Its not just Pakistan, all these countries have had a share of intelligence failures. Pakistan is no victim but it is being judged against different standards. So you are right, we dont even have the privilege of being the victims unlike India or any other country, because we are weak and get taken for granted despite doing all the work. We are the only country being punished for past sins( despite the US and West being the creaters of the Afghan War) So no we wont be able to retaliate or dictate, but we sure as hell can mess things up for them even now. No matter what they do, the endgame will play out in our favor, just like Iraq's endgame played out in Iran's favor.
If you r dependent so much on Pakistan then try to give respect to our concerns...No more now We already have lost alot for u people...
It's about the time the government of pakistan said to Karzai who all of a sudden begging his Pakistani couterpart to attend the Bone conference only now he finds the importance of Pakistan enough is enough you are two faced you are running to India for their help no matter how much we did for you and for all those millions of our Afghanistani brothers living in Pakistan you never ever appreciated before, Now please leave us alone and run to India again if you like, that shows how you upset every Pakistani. The govenment of Pakistan must stay away from American war from now on, you have learned the lesson hard way stop stop stop and concentrate on your economy security and other issues. Lali
Every one knows in the world that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is an undercover US Agent.
Pakistan is no bothered any more for Afghanistan.
What we are concerned is how to get rid off from US that is sticking with Pakistan like a blanket in the winter season.
Now there should be no tro & fro movement from this stance.
@Fareedi:
Completely agree, we should wash our hands of amreekis and afghanis, send home the remaining refugees... na obama na osama!
This afghan ought to stand on their feet and they must leave depending on others...until Afghanistan/Afghani doesn’t use its capacity and potential to stand on their feet....no peace is aspect and they will be exploited further. After decades of double game and involvement of various countries in Afghanistan for their interests must be realize now and they must stand on their feet. Remember Afghan are the most potential nation and they can do allot in the best of their potential…..they must depends on themselves and develop relationship on mutual respect. While after decades of destruction the neighboring and involved countries could honesty play their positive role to the rehabilitate and development of Afghanistan…..because after decades of previous experience that without Afghanistan development regional development is impossible.
@Err: Of course they don't need you !!! If they need you , than its all for wrong reasons !!!!
Pakistan did not want to participate in any peace process at the first place. Now this gives them a great excuse. Karzai should not beg Pakistan to support the peace process, once the fire of terrorism completely engulfs Pakistan, they will learn some lesson. We only have to wait for 2014 once the ISAF leave or let's say defeated; the Taliban will take over Afghanistan, but this time their boundaries of Islamic Khilafat will not be limited to Afghanistan...
With the government.
Wasn't it a few days back that Karzai said on GEO TV that in the event of fighting between the US and Pakistan, he would support Pakistan??? Now do you think he is acting upon his promises??? In fact his troops accompanied by the US army had boots on the ground inside Pakistan on the night of NATO attack. Gunship cavalry was called in to cover their retreat as they had been discovered by the tribals. Pakistan had recently flushed out all the militants so the Americans knew that they would not encounter any hostile taliban. They blew up the border posts to cover their retreat and did not stop bombing the border posts, despite efforts by the military coordination setup for 2 hours. The stopped firing once American troops had withdrawn to the Afghan side of the border.
Good to see the authorities showing some cajones. Pakistan should make it clear that it will participate in such efforts once american/nato mercenaries leave afghanistan and india should not be a part of it.
@SalSal:
So it is open secret that people in Pakistan are sympathetic to Taliban; you just confirmed it. How on earth educated people like you could support Taliban regime.
If Pakistan supports Taliban, why can't they openly say it.
Why is Pakistan important? It is destabilizing force in the region along with China. Both should be brought under control
The afghanis are not really our brothers. They are in bed with the Indians now.
Just look at the hostile statements Karzai makes so often.
all such conferences are eye wash,americans are just prolonging its impossible stay in Afghanistan.
Good gesture from Pak govt about Bonn conference. Pak should avoid these reconciliations with west. Enough is enough. Pak should make strong ties with china and Russia. Support their own interests. Leave proxy wars. We need to rebuild. We have lost 45 thousand lives and 75 billion $ worth. Still our politicians are looting Pakistan. Sigh.
I love Pakistan!
Good decision we support our government
Kabul should learn how to behave as a responsible state. Karzai should understand that a puppet's end is often not nice.
Solve your own problems.... we have had enough of Afghanistan and USA. Leave us alone. Fourty Thousand dead and this is what w get....
We were better off without your money and support.
Pakistan does not like Bone conference. we will like a boneless conference. get it? boneless? means without America. the bone of contention
Now we are brothers to them, what a baloney.
This symbolic stuff is so over rated, Militaray top brass should resign for so much of failures starting from abbottabad, mahran base and now this... the recent is this one when the jawans are left on the mercy of Nato gunships while our F-16s and choppers did not move. What's good is our Air force for?
This seems a deliberate move by NATO to keep Pakistan out of conference and future of Afghanistan. Our Army especially PAF response was not at all appropriate as they were unable to respond even after hours of attack.
How on earth can they decide afghanistans future without including Taliban who control most of the country till now?
Nato and Afghanistan are big victims of terrorism. Attacks by non-official actors should not be taken seriously by Pakistan. Such attitude will never bring peace in South Asia and Afghanistan.
I thought drug trafficking was more important to Bonn conference, since a group outlawed that it are not invited.
At one point, these Afghan unnamed officials accuse Pakistan and on demand support from Pakistan. Ingrates
No thanks we wont be there (in conference).
No more. Finally the govt has made a good decision. Stick with it. The whole nation is with you. Don't trust Karzai.