KABUL - Former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai asked the new US administration to review the Afghan policy and ‘correct mistakes’ committed during the past 15 years. He also held Pakistan responsible for failure of the US-Afghan policy.
In an interaction with India’s Minister of State for External Affairs, MJ Akbar, at the concluding session of Raisina Dialogue, the former Afghan President admitted that things went wrong during this period. “That is why we have not been able to defeat the Taliban and other extremist forces despite our best efforts which yielded good results initially,” he said.
Karzai suggested that the US, along with Russia, China and India, should sit together and work out a new policy. He believed that Trump’s apparent willingness to cooperate with Russia would help the fight against terror in the region.
He said the so-called US ally, Pakistan, was itself responsible for the failure of Washington’s Afghan policy, as it, through the ISI, encouraged and assisted regrouping of Taliban activists who had gone back and settled in villages after losing power. He said it used religion to motivate the Taliban activists and supporters, as it had been doing in India and other neighbouring countries.
Karzai regretted that despite informing Washington about such activities of Pakistan, the US did little to restrain Islamabad and continued to pamper it with aid and grants. If the US had put stringent conditions for providing aid, it would have deterred the Pakistani leadership and the army from assisting the Taliban, he noted.
Asked by Akbar whether he believes Trump’s administration would be different from those of Bush and Obama, Karzai said, “There needs to be change in the US policy, if it needs to succeed. US needs to change.”
“Fundamental changes are required in the American policy,” Karzai said, adding he was not against the BSA (Bilateral Security Agreement) with the US, but had only demanded that some conditions to be added to it.

Akbar said India and Karzai are on the same page as both are against dividing terrorists as good and bad. He said the Indian government is very clear that terrorists are terrorists and they need to be tackled effectively. (Monitoring Desk)