Karzai vows to have more control over foreign troops if reelected; Holbrooke asserts that voting in August elections will also be held in the country’s most dangerous areas; Mullen: Pak’s ISI fomenting “chaotic activity” in Afghanistan and India
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    • President Hamid Karzai, addressing supporters at a rally in Kabul on July 24, stated that if he was re-elected as president in the August elections, he would seek to negotiate a new agreement regarding the status and role of foreign troops deployed in the country. He also stated that he would pursue negotiations with the Taliban and other opposition groups in order to achieve peace, and that he would devote more efforts towards ensuring governance and in achieving law and order1.

    The visiting US special envoy Richard Holbrooke meanwhile asserted that next month’s presidential elections would be held even in the most dangerous places in the country, though “complex challenges” still remained. Holbrooke was speaking to reporters after visiting Taliban strongholds Kandahar and Helmand provinces in the south of the country2.

    The Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mullen has accused the Pakistani ISI of fomenting “chaotic activity” in Afghanistan and India. He made these remarks ahead of his meeting with the visiting Indian Army Chief Gen. Deepak Kapoor, who was on a 5-day visit to America in a bid to strengthen military ties between the two countries. Mullen urged the ISI to change its "strategic thrust" and stated that Washington was having "discussions" with the Pakistani leadership on this issue3.

    In other developments, the US defence department’s top civilian official for counter-insurgency strategy, Michael Vickers stated that the US and Afghan counter narcotics strategy will see a shift from efforts to wipe out the poppy crops to targeting the drug runners and land lords supporting the Taliban insurgency. He added that this entailed “much less emphasis on eradication” and greater focus on “interdiction4.”

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