Posted on 06/19/2002 4:07:22 PM PDT by knighthawk
ISLAMABAD: In a major development that holds ominous overtones for Pakistan and seeks the attention of foreign policy makers, Afghanistan has formally sought help from Israel for combating terrorism, The News has learnt. The request was put forth by newly elected Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, a fortnight ago.
"I expect your help, Israel's help, in everything that concerns Afghanistan's struggle against terrorism," Tel Aviv-based Israeli newspaper Vesti quotes Sharansky as telling it in an interview on his return from Kazakhstan, on June 13. President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee were among a host of leaders from Asia to attend the conference on confidence building measures in the Asian continent.
Asked if he met the Afghan leader during the conference, Sharansky replied: "Yes, I had a meeting with him. Karzai is an elegant, handsome, bearded man. The French fashion designers have referred to him as the world's most elegant man. We also sat down side by side to be photographed, the Palestinians stood on one side of him and I on the opposite one."
Sharansky added: "I spoke to him: It seems that you speak good English, so let us get acquainted. And Karzai answered: Yes, let's. And we began a tentative conversation. I told him: We can help Afghanistan in many respects. Karzai himself said: I expect your help, Israel's help, in everything that concerns Afghanistan's struggle against terrorism."
Sharansky said he had written an article a short time before the United States military operations began in Afghanistan saying, "The US should not repeat its past mistakes, that it should not bring a dictator to Kabul but, on the contrary, should encourage the democratic process there." The Israeli deputy prime minister tells Vesti newspaper that he was delighted to learn that Karzai had read his article and had known all about it. "He had known much about my views, and our conversation began on that basis. Later he sent his foreign minister (Dr Abdullah Abdullah) to me who came to my room and we spoke there. We made arrangements in a number of fields," Sharansky said.
He added: "Karzai has put on his team people with absolutely pro-Western views, and our notions are similar in many respects. May God help him overcome the difficulties that lie ahead: They are unbelievably vast."
"Of all drugs that find their way to Europe today, 80 per cent originate in Afghanistan. It is an enormously huge business. And then everything must be restored or built anew in the country: trade, roads, communications systems, agriculture, literally everything! Israel can certainly help them," Sharansky added.
Yes, of course he talked that way.
;-)
Well said...up until I read this article I had hope for the Karzai regime. Now I give it six months at best. Not only is Israel incapable of giving useful advise on terrorism, it is not a politically brilliant idea to seek their advise given his constituency.
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