Karzai is home from crucial foreign tour

KABUL): President Hamid Karzai on Thursday returned home from a five-day foreign trip that featured his talks with Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari in London, a strategic deal with Norway and a speech at a crucial OIC summit in Egypt.

The key trip began on Saturday when Karzai, accompanied by his cabinet ministers, advisors and military leaders, left for the UK where Prime Minister David Cameron was looking forward to hosting Afghan side’s series of meetings with Pakistani counterparts.

Karzai also met with Prince Charles at Clarence House, UK Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening, on the sidelines of the third Afghanistan-UK trilateral summit, an initiative by the UK PM since last year to secure a peace deal with the Afghan insurgents.

In an interview with The Guardian, Karzai said Prince Harry made a “mistake” by saying his computer game skills were helpful while in battle against the Taliban.

After the summit, Karzai and Zardari said they would work jointly to reach a deal on peace with the Afghan rebels over the next six month.

Cameron issued a direct appeal to the Taliban asking them to enter peace talks with the Afghan government on the future of Afghanistan.

After the summit on Tuesday, the Afghan leader arrived in Oslo, where he signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

Later in the day, he flew to Cairo for a two-day summit of member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that concluded on Thursday.

In his speech, Karzai told the OIC summit religious scholars across the Muslim world

Foreign Minister Zalmay Rassul, National Security Advisor Dr. Dadfar Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Chief of Army Staff Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, head of security transition commission, Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, High Peace Council Chairman Salahuddin Rabbani, advisor to president on international affairs, Yahya Maroofi and presidential spokesman, Aimal Faizi accompanied Karzai during the five-day trip.

myn/ma

Visits: 1