Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

United States to stay in Afghanistan for long

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

* Bush and Karzai sign a strategic partnership

WASHINGTON: US President George Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed a “strategic partnership” on Monday enabling long term American involvement in Afghanistan’s security as well as reconstruction.

Among the key points of the agreement was allowing US military forces operating in Afghanistan to have continued access to the key Bagram Air Base as well as other military facilities as “may be mutually determined”.

American access to these facilities was necessary for US forces to “help organise, train, equip, and sustain Afghan security forces” according to the joint declaration of the “US-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership”.

“It’s a partnership we have been working on for quite a while,” Bush told reporters with Karzai by his side after their meeting at the White House. “It’s a partnership that establishes regular high level exchanges of mutual interest,” Bush said.

Earlier, Karzai complained about US treatment of Afghan detainees and Bush said Afghanistan poppy cultivation for heroin has to stop.

Karzai told Bush of his concern about a US Army report on alleged abuse of Afghan detainees. The report, details of which were published last week by The New York Times, described abuses of prisoners at the hands of US troops, including two deaths.

Also, in the wake of a reported State Department complaint that Karzai was not doing enough to eradicate the Afghan poppy crop used to make heroin, Bush said, “There is too much poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and I made it very clear that we have got to work together to eradicate the poppy crop.” agencies


http://www.boston.com/dailynews/144/world/Iraq_suspends_oil_exports_to_T:.shtml