Karzai asks for NATO withdrawal, Taliban talks off

PanARMENIAN.Net - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday, March 15 asked visiting US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta to anticipate to 2013 the handover of all security responsibility from foreign to Afghan forces, M&C reported citing DPA.

During the meeting, Karzai also asked that all foreign soldiers be pulled out of Afghanistan's villages after a US soldier went on a rampage and killed 16 Afghan civilians, many of them women and children.

Meanwhile, the Afghan Taliban said they had suspended all talks in Qatar with the United States due to what they described as the “shaky, erratic and vague standpoint of the Americans.”

The insurgents announced in January that they were opening an office in the Gulf state of Qatar in order to start dialogue with the international community.

In their latest statement, the Taliban said the political office in Qatar was for the sake of reaching an understanding with the outside world and particularly for the exchange of prisoners with the Americans.

They also said they will not restart talks with the US “until the Americans clarify their stance on the issues concerned and until they show a willingness in carrying out their promises instead of wasting time.”

Western governments that have been sending soldiers to Afghanistan for more than a decade have said they plan to pull out of the Asian country by the end of 2014. However, a growing number of politicians in Europe and the US have been questioning the NATO-led mission. At the same time, there are ongoing concerns that Afghan national security forces are not yet ready to take up the challenge of fighting the Taliban on their own.

Karzai's comments to Panetta came as hundreds of Afghans gathered in a southern city to protest the killings by the US soldier. The suspect has been in US military custody since surrendering on his return to his base after the rampage and was flown to Kuwait on Wednesday.

Afghan lawmakers have also said their patience with foreign troops has run out.

Panetta was on a two-day visit to Afghanistan to try to contain the fallout from the recent incidents.