Slav Defence
THINK TANK VICE CHAIRMAN: ANALYST
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KABUL (AFP/Reuters) - Criticising Western media on Thursday for gloomy predictions about Afghanistans future once US-led foreign forces withdraw from the war against Taliban insurgents in 2014, President Hamid Karzai outlined preconditions for strategic pact with neighbouring Pakistan.We are happy to have strategic relations with Pakistan. We want this strategic pact with Pakistan. But we want some conditions and preconditions from Pakistan, Karzai told a news conference.First they should stop terrorists, suicide bombers crossing to Afghanistan, he said. If these conditions are met - terrorism is stopped, extremism is dismantled, anti-Afghan activities are stopped, destruction of Afghanistan is stopped, friendship starts between the two countries which hasnt happened so far - then a strategic pact would be signed between Afghanistan and Pakistan.Karzai predicted the US-led war on militancy would not be successful from Afghanistans view because it was being fought in Afghan villages, rather than against insurgents allegedly sheltering in neighbouring countries, an allusion to Pakistan.Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been strained in recent months over cross-border shelling which Kabul blames on the Pakistan military. Islamabad says the shelling is in retaliation for anti-government attacks launched by insurgents operating from mountain havens on Afghan soil.Karzai blamed the Western media for waging a psychological war against his country.This is a psychological war by the Western media against Afghanistan: once the foreign troops pull out, Afghanistan will be poor, there will be civil war and the Taliban will return, etcetera, said Karzai. The president said he had raised the issue with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a visit to the United States for the UN General Assembly last week.I believe if the objective is to influence future agreements on the number of US military bases, the presence of US troops beyond 2014 - it cant achieve this through psychological war, he said.Karzai mentioned in particular The New York Times, BBC and CNN, adding, however, that unfortunately, local media, television and radios and analysts are also predicting civil war in Afghanistan once foreign troops pull out.The president also fired a broadside at cabinet members and other senior officials whose families live abroad and who he said were bad-mouthing Afghanistan.I have told many of them to bring their families back to Afghanistan because life and the environment is better and happier here, he said.Those whose families are abroad and fuelling publicity about instability, I will fire them immediately.Karzai said presidential elections would be held on time in 2014 and he would step aside as mandated, denying speculation that the exit of foreign troops and security problems would delay the poll.The election will definitely happen. Go on and choose your own favourite candidate. My term, if prolonged by even a day, will be seen as illegitimate, Karzai said.Opposition parties also say they are worried Karzai could act outside the constitution on poll timing, or try to install an ally as his successor to maintain an influence on power.The World Bank, in its most recent assessment of Afghanistan, said while the economy had expanded strongly in the past few years, bolstered by big aid flows helping real gross domestic product growth reach 8.4 per cent in 2010/11, the Nato pullout was expected to cut that growth by about half.Donors meeting in Tokyo in July promised civilian aid worth $16 billion over the next four years, but tied that to a much stronger effort by Karzai to combat corruption that has seen millions of aid dollars stolen.
