Kabul will never recognize Durand Line: Karzai
Afghan president calls upon Taliban groups to join war against ‘enemies’ of Afghanistan.
KABUL (Agencies) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday said that the government of Pakistan is looking to force Afghanistan for the recognition of controversial Durand line as the formal border between the two nations by creating issues including construction of border gates and other military installations.
While speaking during a press conference, president Karzai said Pakistani officials have repeated shared the issue formally and informally with the government in the past, according to Afghan media reports.
Karzai insisted that the Afghan government will never recognized Durand as the formal border line between the two nations.
President Hamid Karzai praising the Afghan border guard who was killed during clashes with the Pakistani soldiers called on the Taliban group fight Afghanistan’s enemies.
Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been severely strained in recent months, especially over the delicate issue of the demarcation of their border.
Afghan and Pakistani forces engaged in a nearly five-hour exchange of fire last Tuesday along Afghanistan s eastern border. One Afghan border policeman was killed and two Pakistani soldiers were wounded in the fighting in eastern Nangarhar province.
The main problem is that Afghanistan does not recognize the disputed Durand Line, the 19th century demarcation between present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, while Pakistan does.
"Since the Durand line has been imposed on Afghanistan, it was not acceptable to the Afghans and we cannot accept the Durand line," Karzai said. "No government in Afghanistan will accept the Durand Line."
Pakistan and Afghanistan have long been tense neighbors.
Afghanistan has been deeply suspicious of the motives of a government that long backed the Taliban regime and has since seemed unable or unwilling to go after militant leaders taking refuge inside its borders.
The killing of al-Qaida chief, Osama bin Laden, in Pakistan only strengthened Afghan wariness of the neighboring country.
In an effort to defuse tensions, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on April 24 brought Karzai and Pakistani military chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani together in Brussels for security talks. But he meeting apparently did little to ease the tension.
"We need Pakistan. They are our neighboring country," Karzai said. "While I m president, I will continue to improve relations with Pakistan. But our position is clear, we don t accept the Durand Line and we will not accept it.
"Whatever the British empire imposed on Afghanistan, it was not acceptable in 1893 and it is not acceptable to us today."
