Afghan government feuding with Brits

Not a happy situation:

THE Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, will meet Tony Blair in London this week in an attempt to repair relations with Britain which one diplomat described as “in total tatters”...

Some of Karzai’s closest advisers have accused Britain of conspiring with Pakistan to hand over southern Afghanistan. The deputy head of mission at the British embassy was in such a heated argument with the president that it was feared he would be expelled. Karzai’s chief of staff, Jawed Ludin, was forced to resign after his attempts to defend Britain led to accusations that he was a British spy.

The row centres on the continued violence in Helmand province, where British troops are based, and London’s refusal to acknowledge publicly Pakistan’s role in supporting the Taliban. Karzai accuses Britain of “compromising” with Islamabad because of its need for cooperation from Pakistan’s security services to infiltrate terrorist groups involving British Muslims.

“I understand that Britain has a long friendship with Pakistan and that its relationship with Pakistan is different from that of other countries because of its domestic concerns,” Karzai told The Sunday Times. “But that compromise will not bring an end to terrorism in Britain...

One of his national security advisers accused Britain of turning a blind eye to Pakistani infiltration of southern Afghanistan as revenge for its defeats in the first and second Anglo-Afghan Wars in the 19th century [now that's historicist paranoia - MC]...

The relationship broke down at the start of this year when the United States accused Pakistan of allowing Taliban to operate from its soil. This has left Britain isolated.

Before US General Dan McNeill took over command of Nato forces in Afghanistan from the British last Sunday, he flew to Islamabad to show President Pervez Musharraf video footage of armed men crossing the border into Afghanistan in front of Pakistani border guards.

“I very much support the American stand,” said Karzai. “It always helps to speak the truth. Unless we do that we won’t find a solution...