KABUL — President Hamid Karzai’s scathing attack on the West for its role in Afghanistan drew criticism Saturday from Afghan politicians after the White House described his remarks as genuinely troubling.

Despite Karzai’s attempt at damage control, including a telephone conversation with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, his allegations laid bare the growing mistrust between the Afghan government and its international partners as the United States and NATO try to turn back the Taliban.

Karzai’s speech Thursday also heightened his ongoing political power struggle with an increasingly independent-minded parliament, which has refused to confirm nearly half of his Cabinet nominees because they were allegedly incompetent, corrupt or too weak to resist pressure from powerful people.

During the speech, Karzai lashed out against the U.N. and the international community, accusing them of perpetrating a “vast fraud” in last year’s presidential election as part of a conspiracy to deny him re-election or tarnish his victory.

Karzai also suggested that parliament members who threw out a presidential decree strengthening his power over the election process were serving foreign interests.

That drew a sharp rebuke Saturday from Yunus Qanooni, speaker of the lower house of parliament.

“This is the house of the people and all the members have been elected,” Qanooni told parliament. “It’s not possible that we would be influenced by foreigners.”

 

Copy the Story Link