Afghan endgame: Karzai sees US-Pakistan collusion

Hamid Karzai’s chief of staff says there was still a huge rift with Washington despite top-level efforts to patch up.

KABUL:

The Taliban office in Doha was a plot to break up Afghanistan orchestrated by either Pakistan or the United States, a top aide to the Afghan president has said.

Hamid Karzai’s chief of staff said Kabul was concerned about growing closeness between Pakistan and the US, and that there was still a huge rift with Washington despite top-level efforts to patch up the disastrous fall-out over the office.

“The opening of the Qatar office, the way it happened was a plot and Afghanistan foiled that plot and this plot was aimed at splitting or breaking up Afghanistan,” Karim Khorram told local 1TV in an interview, the recording of which was obtained by AFP.

When the Taliban opened their office on June 18, it was hailed as a first step towards a potential peace deal, but a furious Karzai slammed it as an unofficial embassy for a government-in-exile.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19^th, 2013.