Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that he fully backed Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's stance on the issue of US drone strikes inside Pakistan.
In an interview with a Pakistani private TV channel Geo, Karzai said, "The issue of drones is between the US and Pakistan, I am not in favor of drone attacks in Pakistan, I am against it and I endorse Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's stand on this. I will stand with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif against drone attacks, just as I have stood against American military operations in Afghanistan where civilians were killed, where civilians were wounded, where civilian homes were destroyed. I will fully stand with Pakistan against any activity by any foreign power that causes civilian casualties in Pakistan."
Karzai expressed disappointment over the way the war on terror was being executed‚ saying it is not going to get us any relief.
Answering to a question‚ he regretted that the raids in the war against terror were not hitting the right targets‚ causing civilian casualties and material losses.
Pakistan's new Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, vented his anger on the recent US drone strikes and accused his country's military of lying to Pakistanis about cooperating with the CIA to eliminate terrorism in the northwest tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
"The policy of protesting against drone strikes for public consumption, while working behind the scenes to make them happen, is not acceptable," Sharif said last week, according to an official statement issued after the first meeting of his cabinet.
But stopping US drone strikes, which he and other Pakistani politicians have characterised as a violation of their country's sovereignty, seems hardly certain. Two strikes have hit Pakistan since Sharif's ascent to the prime minister's post was assured – one on May 30, which killed the Deputy Chief of the Pakistani Taliban, and the other Friday, which killed seven unidentified suspected militants.
Apparently, continuation of drone attacks is one of the main barriers of the insurgent's movements in some parts of Pakistan.
"Karzai himself has said that insurgent's hideouts must be targeted out of Afghanistan's geography. Karzai's recent speeches are not in favour of Afghanistan," Shukria Barakzai, Member of Afghan Parliament told TOLOnews.
Afghan-Pak relation has been accompanied by many ups and downs in recent years; Karzai is looking forward to improving its relations with Pakistan's newly established government.
Afghan officials believe that majority of the insurgents have safe havens in Pakistan's North and South Waziristan.
In recent years, the US drone attacks have succeeded in thwarting several terror attempts and has killed several insurgents including Baitullah Mahsood, Senior Pakistani Taliban Commander in 2009, Elias Kashmiri who was called as a most dangerous armed man in the world, Abu Yahya al-Libi deputy and mastermind of Al Qaida network, Mullah Nazir a senior Pakistani militant commander, Badruddin Haqqani financial in charge of Haqqani network and recently Waliurahman Deputy of the Pakistan Taliban Movement.