Karzai’s Rep Says Afghan President Never Threatened to Join Taliban

Posted on Apr 7, 2010

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In a better PR moment, Afghan President Hamid Karzai appears on “Meet the Press” on May 11, 2009.

So, about that whole joining-the-Taliban quip that Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai supposedly made last weekend? Didn’t happen, according to Karzai spokesman Waheed Omar, who had apparently shifted into backpedaling mode on Wednesday.  —KA

AP via Google News:

Karzai’s comments, allegedly made in a meeting with lawmakers on Saturday, had been widely reported by The Associated Press and others, prompting the White House to say a planned Washington visit might be canceled if Karzai didn’t stop blaming the U.S. for his problems.

However, Karzai spokesman Waheed Omar said Karzai’s government had been shocked to see the comment appearing in media outlets, and did not know where it came from.

The Afghanistan government has put “fighting against terror and fighting against those who put the lives of Afghan people in danger as priority No. 1,” Omar told a news conference.

“And in that context, that comment, whoever has come up with that comment, does not make sense,” Omar said.

Three different Afghan lawmakers told the AP that Karzai twice threatened to join the Taliban insurgency if the U.S. continued pressuring him publicly to do more to end graft, cronyism and electoral fraud.

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