Karzai heads to US on mission to mend relations (News Feature)

By Farhad Peikar May 9, 2010, 13:47 GMT

Kabul - Afghan President Hamid Karzai was set to leave for Washington on Sunday, a visit that is hoped will mend the strained relations between the two countries, the presidential palace said.

'During his four-day trip, the president is expected to hold talks with President (Barack) Obama, Secretary of State, Hillary (Rodham) Clinton' and other US officials, Karzai's office said in a statement.

The two sides would discuss 'important issues including the strategic partnership between Afghanistan and the US, security and stability, reintegration, economic and agriculture development,' it said.

The relationship between the two countries has been strained this year, in the wake of a public spat triggered by Karzai's accusation that Western countries were interfering in Afghan affairs.

Karzai has also accused UN and US officials of orchestrating a 'vast fraud' in last year's presidential election, which returned him to power but severely tarnished his reputation at home and abroad.

Obama officially invited Karzai to visit Washington during his short trip to Afghanistan in March.

But the visit was nearly cancelled when Karzai allegedly told a group of Afghan parliamentarians that he would join the Taliban if the West continued to put pressure on him to wipe out the endemic corruption in his administration.

However, both Karzai and US officials have recently seemed to try to improve their soured relations.

The US needs the support of the Afghan government as it pours tens of thousands of extra troops into Afghanistan to turn the tide of the eight-year-long war against the Taliban.

There will be some 150,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan by this summer, 100,000 of them US soldiers.

Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest countries, needs US assistance to rebuild itself following three decades of war, while it depends entirely on the US to train and equip its security forces.

Afghan Defence Minister General Abdul Rahim Wardak told a news conference on Saturday that the Afghan delegation would ask the US government during the upcoming trip to increase its support for Afghan security forces so that they could defend the country when US forces eventually leave Afghanistan.

The Afghan team is also expected to discuss plans for reconciliation with Taliban leaders and reintegration of insurgent fighters. They want US support before a grand council of Afghans is held in Kabul on May 29.

Around 1,500 political leaders and tribal elders are expected to attend the council, known as a peace jirga, which is expected to create guidelines for the Afghan government on how to conduct negotiations with the Taliban.

The jirga was initially scheduled for May 2, but was postponed because of Karzai's visit to Washington.

The US government has cautiously supported the peace initiative, but has said it was too early to hold talks with Taliban leaders.

US officials believe that the Afghan government - if it waits - would be able to negotiate with the militants from a position of greater strength in the coming months, when NATO military operations gain momentum from the deployment of extra forces.

But political analyst Waheed Muzhda says that with US troops due to start withdrawing form July 2011, Afghans are now looking for a speedy breakthrough in the war, before the country is once again abandoned by the West - as it was in 1989 when Soviet troops were forced to retreat.

Public support for the war is also waning in other Western countries, forcing their governments to freeze funding and military aid for the war.

'I think the trip will clarify a lot of things and I hope that the president knows where he is heading when he returns,' Muzhda said.