Post date: Dec 04, 2010 7:45:12 PM
Afghan President Hamid Karzai says leaked U.S. government cables critical of Afghanistan and Pakistan helped bring Afghan-Pakistan relations closer together.
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (DECEMBER 4, 2010) REUTERS - Leaked U.S. government cables critical of Afghanistan and Pakistan have helped bring the two nations together, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday (December 4), dismissing their content as lies.
Karzai also hinted, at a joint news conference with visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, that outside agents may be working to destabilise the neighbours."Whatever the intention was of the WikiLeaks, they helped relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, so in that sense the WikiLeaks were good for us," Karzai said, without detailing how damaging allegations in the cables might have brought them together.
Relations between the two countries have often been strained, particularly over links between Pakistan's intelligence service and the Afghan Taliban, and the involvement of Pakistan-based militants in the Afghan insurgency.
Gilani also said the two nations had to work together.
"You can't win a war without the support of Pakistan. and I appreciate the kind words of President Karzai. That he has, he has said that the realization that Pakistan is equally suffering from the militants and the extremists. And that whatever you think that you have suffered, that maybe Pakistan has suffered more," said Gilani.
"And because this terrorism there is a flight of capital and no investment is coming to Pakistani. Therefore, the realization that we are also suffering as the Afghanistan is suffering, that means we should not go for a blame-game. Rather we should think, sit together and think about it what should be the strategy," added the prime minister.
Karzai said both countries may be struggling against malign outside influences, questioning why U.S.-led foreign forces who helped topple the Taliban in 2001 were now struggling to make progress against insurgents.
Karzai, who has recently been publicly critical of Western tactics in the fight against the Taliban, said ties with Islamabad were solid.
"I can assure you that there is no trust deficit between Afghanistan and Pakistan. That relation between us have improved considerably. That Pakistan recognizes that dangers to Pakistan of extremism, of terrorism, of violence that is causing immense damage to people in Pakistan. That also, that a stable Afghanistan is of vital importance to Pakistan," said Karzai.
Karzai brushed off cables from WikiLeaks detailing widespread corruption in Afghanistan and harsh personal criticism from within his own cabinet, saying they were empty lies designed to undermine him.
Other cables released by WikiLeaks highlighted U.S. concerns over militancy in Pakistan and the safety of its nuclear weapons.