Kabul, April 03: Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke by telephone on Friday, Karzai’s spokesman said, to discuss Karzai’s anti-U.S. comments.
The spokesman said Karzai and Clinton “recommitted themselves to the partnership between the two countries.”
“Afghan President Karzai called Secretary Clinton today to clarify his statements from yesterday, and they had a constructive conversation,” said Philip J. Crowley, a State Department spokesman.
“President Karzai reaffirmed his commitment to the partnership between our two countries, and expressed his appreciation for the contributions and sacrifices of the international community. They pledged to continue working together in a spirit of partnership.”
Earlier in the day, the White House stated that was seeking clarification from Afghan President Hamid Karzai about his comments in which accused Western powers and the U.N. of interfering in last year’s presidential election.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that Karzai’s comments are “genuinely troubling.”
Karzai said on Thursday that the West “want parliament to be weakened and battered and for me to be an ineffective president, and for parliament to be ineffective.”
President Barack Obama paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan Sunday, his first trip as president.
———Agencies