Afghan Presidential palace says President Hamid Karzai has refused to meet President Barrack Obama at Bagram military base, where he had landed to meet American troops during his unscheduled visit late Sunday.
Obama left Afghanistan after spending few hours with the American troops at Bagram airbase, some 60 kilometers north of capital Kabul.
American officials had sought a meeting of President Karzai with President Obama at Bagram military base, the President palace said in Kabul.
“The U.S. embassy in Afghanistan, in a contact, had conveyed a request for a meeting with Afghan President and talks with President Obama at the Bagram military base,” the statement said.
“In response, President Hamid Karzai, said Afghan government is ready to warmly welcome the U.S. president at the Presidential Palace in accordance to Afghan traditions. However the President will not go to Bagram to meet President Obama,” the statement posted on the Presidential website said.
Karzai’s snub came just hours after the Afghan government decided to formally lodge a protest with the United States over recording of almost all phone calls in Afghanistan.
The Presidential Palace said in a separate statement that President Karzai presided over a cabinet meeting and described the phone taping by the American military as violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty.
Afghan officials said that the U.S. used that equipment for phone taping which had been imported by the American military for anti-narcotics activities.
Karzai’s refusal to meet President Obama is continuation of his tensions with the United States following his unwilling to sigh a controversial security agreement that will allow some U.S. troops top stay beyond this year.
Despite recommendation by a traditional “Loya Jirga” or a grand assembly of tribal elders in November last year, calling upon President Karzai to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement, he had refused to ink it.
Karzai had put several condition for signing of the BSA including halt to raids on Afghan homes by the NATO troops and brining the Taliban to the negotiation table.
The U.S. had been anxious Karzai signed the agreement, however, now it has attached hopes to a new Afghan leader to sign it.
Both presidential candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, have hinted to sign the agreement if elected to power. The election runoff will be held on June 14.
President Obama however spoke with President Karzai to congratulate him on the conduct of the first round of elections for President and Provincial Councils and to praise the constructive role played by the President and the people of Afghanistan in the elections, the Presidential palace said on Monday.
“President Obama hoped that the 2nd round of the Afghan elections would too be completed successfully,” the palace said in a separate statement.
During the telephone conversation last Sunday, the two leaders also talked about the peace process of Afghanistan.
“President Karzai informed President Obama that the swearing-in ceremony for the next President of Afghanistan will be held on 2nd August, this year and hoped that the US would also be represented at a senior level in the event.”
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