Email
Print
ShareWASHINGTON: Sending a tough message to Hamid Karzai as he readies for the second phase of his presidency, the Obama administration has said it would now hold the Afghan government accountable for the assistance by the US and others in providing security to the people of the war-torn country.
"We are laying out very clear expectations. We are willing to offer our assistance, but we are going to hold the government of Afghanistan accountable for what they claim they want, which is the United States and the international community's assistance in providing security for their people and in producing results for them as well," secretary of state Hillary Clinton said.
Clinton, who was in Egypt yesterday, told the popular National Public Radio in an interview from Cairo that she spoke with Karzai after the Afghan presidential election results were announced and she told him that they now had a lot of work to do, and there were expectations on both sides.
"From the American perspective, we believed it was important for him to establish a compact with the people of Afghanistan that would commit him and his new government to an anti-corruption campaign, to more accountability and transparency, to a recognition that there has to be more cooperation with local officials, that they have to work with us to build an adequate Afghan security force to protect and defend their country," she said.Afghanistan's independent Election Commission recently declared Karzai as the next Afghan president after his opponent, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew from the November 7 run-off.
With Abdullah disputing the decision of the Afghan Election Commission, state department spokesman Ian Kelly said the US considered Karzai as the "legitimately elected" president of that country.
"We believe that there was an election that was carried out according to Afghan law. We recognise Hamid Karzai as the legitimately elected president of Afghanistan," Kelly told reporters yesterday.
Noting that the US respects Abdullah, the spokesman hoped that he stays engaged in the political process and plays a part in the dialogue and the political life of the country.
"We greatly respect Abdullah, and we think that he conducted a very spirited campaign. We respect him for his ideas. But we believe that Hamid Karzai is the legitimately elected leader of Afghanistan," he said, adding that Karzai was declared elected as per the constitution of Afghanistan.
