Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai Sends France Condolences

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai offered his condolences to France's defense minister on Sunday, following the killing of four French troops by an Afghan soldier.

The shooting Friday in eastern Afghanistan provoked a sharp reaction from Paris, prompting President Nicolas Sarkozy to suspend training missions and threaten to withdraw French troops early from the country.

On Sunday, Karzai met with French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet in Kabul and discussed the killings and Afghan-French relations.

Karzai's office said Longuet still sounded prepared to sign a long-term partnership to keep French forces in Afghanistan for years. The Afghan government expects the deal to be signed next week, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai.

The shooting last week was the second in which an Afghan soldier has turned on French forces since France first sent forces here, and the latest in a rising number of assaults in which Afghan security forces or infiltrators have turned their guns on coalition troops.

Before the meeting with Karzai, Longuet said his mission in Kabul was to "evaluate the attitude our officials should take" in the future.

Karzai's office said the Afghan government is investigating the shooting.

"France is an old and sincere historic friend of the Afghan nation and has remained as such," Karzai told Longuet, according to the statement, in an apparent move to smooth out relations.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe spoke by phone Saturday night with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton about the French troops' deaths and Paris' intentions in Afghanistan.

The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Longuet will give Sarkozy a report on his visit to Kabul. The president will then "draw all the conclusions from the attack," the ministry said, in a reference to whether Paris will maintain its mission in the coalition.

Karzai is to visit Paris on Jan. 27, a trip scheduled before the killings.

Longuet's trip coincides with a visit by the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, who began meeting with Karzai and Afghan officials on Saturday. The U.S. is trying to negotiate its own long-term partnership agreement, along with supporting plans to bring the Taliban insurgency into formal talks for the first time.

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Comments

[se72748]

11:11 AM on 01/23/2012

Karzai is not an American puppet,far from it.He has said in the past that if he had to choose between America and Pakistan he would support Pakistan.He is using America,France an others simply to protect his own butt.Obama should wind this Afghan war as soon as possible.We don't have the money to throw away over there.We have infrastructure that needs rebuilt.

[lunarsnowstorm]

06:39 AM on 01/23/2012

Sad, but the fact of the matter is ...they are in a war zone. Their President sent them there, he should be mad at himself. What did he think, that they would say the French are here all will be fine and dandy , by the way don't shoot.

[wakohnen]

05:45 AM on 01/23/2012

"Please keep your troops coming, I promise to give my troops a good talking to about deterring from killing French troops." I did not see a solution to this issue in this article. How can they assure this will not happen again? Why not let the Afghans take care of ground fighting and everyone else give them air support? Why is there a need for anyone else to have boots on the ground?

[peach1436]

08:40 AM on 01/23/2012

Well said.

[Quis Custodiet]

05:32 AM on 01/23/2012

Well well. Karzai is learning diplomacy. Who would have thought that you *can* teach a corrupt dog new tricks.

[dahmady]

05:02 AM on 01/23/2012

KARZAI IS FAKE

[Quis Custodiet]

05:32 AM on 01/23/2012

Laik...Awh...Mah...Gawd...

You wear velcro shoes don't you?

[estimatorone]

03:37 AM on 01/23/2012

In any "war" zone, incidents like this will happen. In this particular case,
this does not seem like it was a "friendly, accidental, fire" incident, but
more like a murder incident, which can happen anywhere, at any time.
As such, it will be handled by the respective governments accordingly
and the afghan president's apology should be taken for what it is.
Putting aside the politics, reasons why we should, or should not be
there, etc. we should also note that we are not "holier then thou" when
it comes to friendly fire killings. We have done a number of accidental
killings there to their civilians, our troops, their soldiers and our allies.
In a horrible situation like that, .the first thing that is a must to do is
to apologize. If nothing else, it shows your character, compassion
and your willingness to admit to, and accept the responsibility for your
mistake. This is one of the things that seperates us from those who
we are fighting. It also gives us the credibility we need for whatever
the reason why we are still there.

[Quis Custodiet]

05:33 AM on 01/23/2012

Yes, but remember that politics are NOT about multilateral equality nor the rules being identical for all the actors.

[mcptginc]

08:03 AM on 01/23/2012

There have been reports of increased killings of coalition troops. Resentments run high. This will never work. We went there to get Bin Laden and instead we are on a failed mission of nation building. Won't work. Never does.

[Kathleen Gersch]

02:45 AM on 01/23/2012

seems the french are wising up. the american puppet karzai should be thrown out along with the americans. america has killed enough .

[Jerry Villano]

02:00 AM on 01/23/2012

You gotta love the armchair/computer Generals....they know everything!

[Loren Sauers]

05:26 AM on 01/23/2012

I have to agree, but still we need to get out.

[Jerry Villano]

01:59 AM on 01/23/2012

Love all the armchair generals....they know everything!!

[Bill Hummel]

12:50 AM on 01/23/2012

Why are we even there.?

[snydleyy]

08:52 AM on 01/23/2012

I agree, isn't Bin Laden dead?

[msega17341]

10:54 PM on 01/22/2012

Talks, wow yesterday we became bipedal now we are learning to talk perhaps tomorrow we will learn to learn then to respect then to love then to live in harmony learning from each other without fear or terror, YIPPEE. I hope I live to see it.

[Bill Lange]

11:11 PM on 01/22/2012

Not as long as there are muslims in the world unfortunatly.

[Kathleen Gersch]

02:43 AM on 01/23/2012

your comment is sickening.

[T-Bow]

10:48 PM on 01/22/2012

If the western world would stay out of the Middle East and allow them to continue killing each other we would all be better off, We have no business in their infighting. USA...get out now!

[reef1973]

11:22 PM on 01/22/2012

We have to be there to help with the killing since our economy depends do much on war to keep it humming. :)
BTW, didn't you along most of the folks living in the States supported the wars?

[JamesScott]

08:16 AM on 01/23/2012

As long as we use the internal combustion engine and insist everyone denominate oil in dollars, we will be militarily involved, at increasing costs.

[Kenneth Neugent]

10:24 PM on 01/22/2012

He should have told them it was a drone. But he is slow. Maybe he didn't think of it fast enough....
Keep those drones in the air over there. It is better than the loss of life over these vermin.

[mcptginc]

08:25 AM on 01/23/2012

NAFTA....the way it was implemented has created the "sucking sound" Ross Perot said it would.
Agreed!

[Tuula Westra]

09:35 PM on 01/22/2012

Monsieur Karzai, ca c'est a tres amicalmant faite de votre part, merci bien.

[norbekauss]

04:30 AM on 01/23/2012

Hey Tuula Westra
If you want to make people believe that you can speak French,I have news for you!
Here is what you wrote.
"Mr Karzei, it is a very friendly made from you Thank you "
Does that sound right to you? That is the problem with this blogs here at the Huff.Post, to many stupid wanabes.Everybody is an expert!

[tidavis58]

08:54 AM on 01/23/2012

They just forgot to utilize one of those free language translator websites that are out there on the Net. Good catch!

[straight skinny]

09:32 PM on 01/22/2012

Time to Seriously Reassess about getting out of that Hell Hole! It's bad enough fighting the damn enemy but when an Afghani soldier turns on you-the very one you might have trained-it's time to get the hell out!

[maxom]

10:16 PM on 01/22/2012

That's for sure.....and only ONE of the reasons we need to get out.

[straight skinny]

03:00 AM on 01/23/2012

Makes me angry of course but there are talks going on now that obviously we are not privy to between the warring parties. Just like in the wind down of Vietnam when we had good people in sensitive talks in Paris, Kissinger and Laird a very capable Defense Secratary, we are forced to bite it for now as there are many things at stake. It's one thing for me to be p!ssed off, but an entirely different thing when it comes to the realities of the complex war there, and in that region (no matter what anyone of us says or thinks). This is the President's call and I'm sure they are going to do what needs to be done at the end-but it still doesn't help if Karzai takes "strong action" and it keeps happening. At some point a commander might speak out-even a senior field grade commander like Col. Hackworth did in Nam 40 years ago declaring the war unwinnable (although we did secure the Armistice and had a cease fire for 2 years after pulling out) and declaring when the war would be finally done with for good almost to the day in 1975. A Major General has already spoken out after hearing of Karzai's "friendly" relationship with Pakistan (but I'm sure he was told to put an egg in it). It's a messed up war like all wars that turn into quagmires.

[TroopAbn]

01:42 AM on 01/23/2012

Yes, and it just happened to our troops last week if you remember.