The United States Tuesday pointedly declined to call Afghan President Hamid Karzai an ally, and hinted his White House invitation could be withdrawn if he repeats his anti-foreigner outbursts. Frustration with the Afghan leader within President Barack Obama's administration became even more obvious, following Karzai's latest claims that foreigners were behind large-scale fraud in Afghan elections.
Karzai is scheduled to meet Obama on May 12, after he was invited to visit Washington during the US leader's surprise trip to Afghanistan in late March. "I would say that that meeting is still on the schedule as of now," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, but when pressed, appeared to tie the fate of the visit to Karzai's future comportment.
"We certainly would evaluate whatever continued or further remarks President Karzai makes, as to whether it is constructive to have that meeting," Gibbs said. "There are times when the actions that he takes are constructive to governance. I would say that the remarks he's made - I can't imagine that anybody in this country would find them anything other than troubling."
Karzai's behaviour risks becoming a domestic political problem for Obama, who last year ordered an extra 30,000 US troops into Afghanistan in an effort to finally crush the Taliban after a bloody eight-year war. Washington has demanded that Karzai repay US sacrifices by embracing good governance and by fighting corruption, in order to create a functioning state that could allow US forces to finally leave the country. Some US officials were also privately angered when Karzai invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Kabul in March, and he preceeded to deliver a scathing anti-US speech.
Some reports said the visit was planned in retaliation for an earlier invitation for Karzai to go to the White House being withdrawn. The State Department meanwhile Tuesday dismissed accusations by a former senior United Nations envoy to Afghanistan that Karzai's "mental stability" was in doubt and that he could be taking illegal drugs.
Peter Galbraith, who was accused by Karzai last week of meddling in the Afghan election, told MSNBC that the president was "prone to tirades, he can be very emotional, act impulsively. In fact, some of the palace insiders say that he has a certain fondness for some of Afghanistan's most profitable exports." Asked to back up his claim, the former UN deputy head of mission in Afghanistan replied: "There are reports to that effect, but whatever the cause is, the reality is he can be very emotional."
State Department spokesman Philip Crowley however branded the remarks as "outrageous." Karzai has angered Washington twice within just a few days. On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that he told lawmakers that the United States was interfering with Afghan affairs and that the Taliban would become a legitimate resistance movement if it did not stop.
The paper said that in the private meeting, the Afghan president even suggested he could join the Taliban himself, if parliament did not support his efforts to take control of the country's election commission. Those comments followed a previous Karzai outburst last week, along similar lines, which the Obama administration called "troubling" and "preposterous" and demanded a clarification. Parliamentary elections are scheduled in Afghanistan in September and some Afghans say Karzai is galled by the prospect of having to make embarrassing concessions to secure vital foreign funds.