US President Barack Obama did not suggest that violence had dissipated entirely in Afghanistan when he said that his apology to Afghanistan's leader had calmed furious protests over the desecration of Holy Quran, an Obama aide said on Thursday. Obama spoke about the effects of his apology in an interview on Wednesday. Since he made the apology a week ago at a Nato base near Kabul.
Obama, who is running for re-election in November, is seeking to deflect criticism by Republicans for making what they call unnecessary apologies for US actions overseas. At the same time, he does not want to be seen as playing down US casualties in a costly, unpopular war.
"What the president said was what the commanding general in Afghanistan and others have said, which is that certainly that the statements by US leaders had helped calm the situation down," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One.
"But nobody has suggested that violence has ended in Afghanistan, in general or in reaction to the unfortunate incident involving the inadvertent unintentional burning of religious material," he said. In the Wednesday interview with ABC News, Obama said his formal apology to Afghan President Hamid Karzai had "calmed things down", after the incident spurred widespread protests against US and Nato troops in Afghanistan.