Kabul: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday said the US is not prepared to defend Afghanistan against Pakistan’s shelling over his country’s border, despite the long-term cooperation agreement between both countries.
According to Afghan news agency (Khaama Press), Karzai confirmed cross-border shelling by Pakistani military during a press conference on Thursday. however, he said, Afghanistan will not retaliate.
“Pakistan is shelling our villages but we will never take such an action to attack the villages and houses on the other side the border. We believe the villages and houses on the other side of the border are like our own people,” he said.
President Karzai added that the issue was shared through diplomatic efforts in the UN Security Council, UN General Assembly session and during meetings with the Pakistani and US officials.
He said, “The US has clearly denied the statistics provided by Afghan officials regarding the Pakistan shelling. They said that the reports were not correct.”
Meanwhile, Afghan officials said on Thursday that Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to strengthen bilateral coordination to resolve border disputes during a meeting between the delegations of the two armies in Pakistan on Wednesday.
The Afghan army has been informed that the Pakistani army shoots only when villages or the Pakistani borders face an actual attack from terrorists in large numbers.
Karzai said the United States seeks to keep its military bases in Afghanistan beyond 2014, Press TV reports. Karzai said in a press conference in Kabul on Thursday that Washington plans to keep the bases for another decade, our correspondent present at the conference said.
QNA
