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Obama's Afghan strategy to bypass Karzai

Article published on the 2009-03-23 Latest update 2009-03-24 11:12 TU

Washington and its European allies are preparing to bypass Afghan President Hamid Karzai by encouraging the creation of a new post of chief executive or prime minister, according to reports in a British newspaper. US President Barack Obama told an American TV interviewer that he is preparing a strategy to leave the war-torn country.

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European officials have told The Guardian that there is consensus with Washington over the creation of a new executive post in the Afghan govenrment because "there needs to be a deconcentration of power". 

The plan is also expected to divert more money to the provinces, in an effort to reduce Kabul's control.

"We are getting increasing signs that Mr Karzai may not be able to remain in the main power game," says Pakistani analyst Fazlur Rahman.

But he adds that neither Washington nor the Nato military alliance, which runs the international military intervention in the country, have proposed a political strategy for Afghanistan.

Analysis: Fazlur Rahman of the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad

 
 

23/03/2009 by Judith Prescott

The Obama administration has distanced itself from Karzai, as his government faces accusations of corruption and ineffectiveness, but Washington fears that there will be no credible alternative to him in the presidential election in August.

A new strategy for Afghanistan is due to be announced at a conference in The Hague, the Netherlands, on 31 March.

"There's got to be an exit strategy," Obama told CBS's 60 Minutes programme, "there's got to be a sense that this is not a perpetual drift."

Describing the decision to send an extra 17,000 troops to Afghanistan as the most difficult he has taken in office so far, Obama defined the US mission as "making sure Al-Qaeda cannot attack the US homeland and US interests and our allies".

He indicated that his administration will broaden the strategy to include Pakistan and India, while complaining about Islamist fighters finding a safe haven in Pakistan's tribal areas and in its north-western Swat Valley.

Afghan officials say that Taliban fighters killed eight police in the southern Kandahar province, while the international military force said that it had killed ten insurgents in Helmand, also in the south.