Afghan President Hamid Karzai says his government will participate in a review of the war in Afghanistan currently being conducted by U.S. officials, a move that signals a new spirit of co-operation between the two countries.
Karzai said Sunday that his foreign minister, Dadfar Rangin Spanta, would lead the Afghan delegation. However, it is unclear which review Afghan officials would join, as the U.S. has several reviews open into the Afghan mission.
Karzai had recently sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama proposing Afghan involvement in a review of the mission. On Sunday, U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said Obama "welcomed the suggestion."
"I am very, very thankful that President Obama has accepted my proposal of Afghanistan joining the strategic review of the war on terror in Afghanistan," Karzai said Sunday.
The U.S. government is reviewing its Afghan mission, during which troops have faced increasing numbers of violent attacks from Taliban militants.
Militants have also consolidated their influence across rural areas that the Afghan government has failed to put under its control.
Obama has announced that he would like to pull back U.S. military involvement in Iraq while boosting troop levels in Afghanistan by about 30,000.
However, some Afghans fear that a stronger U.S. presence in the country will lead to greater violence from Taliban militants, said the Globe and Mail's Graeme Smith.
"So just about everybody's predicting that the upcoming fighting season, which you can expect to see starting in April in the north and then sweeping down to the south around May, will bring higher levels of violence than we have seen so far in Afghanistan," Smith said Sunday during an interview on 麻豆影视net from Afghanistan.
However, Smith also pointed out that Afghan security personnel may appreciate greater U.S. troop strength in the country.
Officials are increasingly concerned about the security situation in Afghanistan, Smith said, particularly after a team of suicide bombers attacked government buildings in Kabul last week, killing 20 people.
Speaking on Sunday after a visit by Holbrooke, Karzai also expressed his gratitude for the U.S. decision to allow Afghan forces to participate in the planning and execution of military maneuvers.
The move is an attempt to reduce civilian casualties during U.S. missions in the country. Karzai would like to see the number of nighttime raids conducted by U.S. troops, which repeatedly cause civilian deaths, reduced.
However, U.S. officials have not said whether they will order a halt to overnight raids.
Karzai's recent criticism of the raids has ratcheted up tensions between the two countries.
In an interview on Friday, Karzai confirmed that he had not spoken on the telephone with Obama since his inauguration last month.
In contrast, Karzai was very close to former president George W. Bush, with whom he spoke regularly.
Smith said that during Holbrooke's visit, the U.S. envoy seemed unwilling to conduct a joint press conference with the Afghan leader, signalling a change in attitude toward the Afghan government.
"What's really changed here is the Americans are re-thinking their strategy towards this country in a very dramatic way and trying to decide wither the president is the right person to be working with," Smith said.
With files from The Associated Press
