As the allies of Afghan President Hamid Karzai try to minimize the seriousness of last weekend’s threat to join the Taliban one member of parliament, Farooq Merenai from the Nangarhar Province, one of many MPs who confirmed the comment, made light of the possibility.
“I don’t think that the Taliban would accept Karzai,” Merenai noted, and indeed it seems that this would likely be the case, as the Taliban has often referred to the Afghan president as a “puppet” of the US. But he is scarcely more welcome among Western nations lately.
The White House is already talking openly about the possibility of canceling next month’s Karzai visit, and while officials insisted that the odds of this actually happening remain low, the Obama Administration’s criticism of Karzai’s recent comments seems to be taking on a new dimension of seriousness.
In fact Press Secretary Robert Gibbs wouldn’t even confirm if the administration still considers Karzai an ally. Officials say they were still “evaluating” Karzai’s comments, which centered primarily around claims the US orchestrated a conspiracy to rig the August election against him.