الرئيسية
Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks as he inaugurates
Loya Jirga, grand assembly in Kabul November 16, 2011. REUTERS/Ahmad
Masood
By Madeline Chambers, Reuters
BERLIN (Reuters) - President Hamid Karzai appealed to
delegates at talks on the future of Afghanistan to support his nation
with financial and military aid for a decade after troops withdraw to
ensure a stable future, in a magazine interview on Sunday.
The
conference in the German city of Bonn, which starts on Monday, takes
place a decade after a first Bonn conference on Afghanistan which ended
in high hopes for its future.
With concern about security after
international troops leave at the end of 2014, poverty a major problem
for many Afghans and a drugs trade that is still thriving, the mood is
sober.
The conference suffered a blow when Afghanistan's neighbor
Pakistan withdrew from the meeting in response to a cross-border attack
by NATO that killed 24 of is soldiers and plunged U.S.-Pakistani
relations deeper into crisis.
"Afghanistan will certainly need
help for another 10 years -- until around 2024... we will need training
for our own troops. We will need equipment for the army and police and
help to set up state institutions," Karzai told Der Spiegel weekly.
"If
we lose this fight, we are threatened with a return to a situation like
that before September 11, 2001,," warned Karzai, referring to Taliban
rule.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the Bonn
talks would focus on three areas -- security in light of the planned
handover to domestic forces, internal reconciliation and long-term
support from world nations.
Karzai said his country needed a big financial commitment.
A
World Bank study released last month said Afghanistan was likely to
need around $7 billion a year from the international community to help
pay its security and other bills long after foreign troops leave.
PAKISTAN IN SPOTLIGHT
Karzai
criticized Pakistan for its lack of help in achieving reconciliation.
"Until now they have refused to help with talks with the Taliban
leadership," he told Der Spiegel, adding some people wanted the Taliban
to remain an influence in Afghanistan.
"If that doesn't change, there won't be talks," he said.
Hopes for an appearance by Taliban representatives at the Bonn talks and a breakthrough on reconciliation have faded.
But Germany's Westerwelle said Pakistan still wanted stability in Afghanistan despite its boycott of the talks.
"I
have the impression Pakistan not only wants to cooperate in
Afghanistan's stabilization process but that it is in its own
interests," he said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio.
Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain, said Pakistan wanted peace in its neighboring country.
"(Pakistani
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza) Gilani ... has reiterated that Pakistan
strongly supports stability, peace and prosperity in Afghanistan and
remains bound by international efforts for Afghanistan's development,"
he wrote in an email.
Earlier this week, the High Commissioner told Reuters the attack had pushed Pakistan's government into a corner.
"The government and armed forces have been pushed to the wall," he said, adding the attack had outraged the whole nation.
U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke to Gilani on Saturday,
offering condolences for the loss of life, and stressed the United
State's commitment to working together in future.
(Additional reporting by Myra MacDonald Reporting by Madeline Chambers Editing by Maria Golovnina)