Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Monday that he planned to hold a traditional assembly, or loya jirga, to decide the country’s peace strategy after the killing of peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani. Karzai made the comments in a televised address to the nation broadcast on state television after his spokesman said the president was reviewing his strategy for negotiations with the Taliban following Rabbani’s death.
“In a traditional loya jirga which will be held soon, the representatives of Afghanistan will be asked (about the situation) and we will do according to their wishes,” Karzai said. He condemned what he called Pakistan’s “double game” on terrorism in Afghanistan. “After all the destruction and misery, the double game towards Afghanistan and the use of terrorism as an excuse still continues,” Karzai said.
“Pakistan has not supported our efforts to bring peace and security to Afghanistan, which is very unfortunate.” But despite this condemnation, Karzai nonetheless restated the view that negotiations had to go through Pakistan in order to get to the Taliban.
