Afghan President cancels official visit to Norway

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Afghan President canceled his official visit to Norway amid concerns following Mideast riots over a film that ridicules Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, officials said Thursday, Sept 13.

According to The Associated Press, Hamid Karzai also talked to President Barack Obama and expressed condolences over the killing of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Libya.

President Karzai’s trip to Norway is to take place at a later date, said his spokesman, Aimal Faizi. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said the Afghan leader postponed the trip because he felt he needed to stay at home.

“The reason is that the president, in light of the serious events in some Arab countries in the past day, sees a need to be in Afghanistan,” said the Norwegian statement. Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said he looks forward to receiving Karzai in Norway “at a later date.”

Karzai was to have traveled to Oslo late Wednesday to sign an agreement of strategic partnership.

According to Karzai’s office, the Afghan leader spoke by phone late Wednesday with Obama and conveyed his condolences for the violent killings of U.S. diplomats in Libya. He also discussed the “film and the insulting of holy Islamic values,” but the statement provided no other details.

Karzai has condemned the anti-Islam film as “inhuman and insulting” and made by “extremists.” On Wednesday, the government temporarily blocked access to YouTube to prevent people from watching the video until the website later took it down.

The Taliban have called on their fighters to avenge the film by increasing their attacks on foreign troops in Afghanistan.