Guardian: Bush referees as Karzai and Musharraf meet for dinner

Bush referees as Karzai and Musharraf meet for dinner

Ed Pilkington in New York and Declan Walsh in Kabul | September 28, 2006

President George Bush said yesterday that he would act as referee at a working dinner at the White House between the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan as public bickering between the two men threatens to destabilise the US "war on terror".

Mr Bush said he would be watching the body language between President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf at the dinner last night. In recent weeks tension between the two over the sheltering of Taliban fighters in Pakistan has burst into the open.

In the latest edition of Newsweek magazine Mr Karzai accuses his Pakistani counterpoint of failing to act against senior Taliban members in his country. "Mullah Omar [the Taliban leader] is, for sure, in Quetta, Pakistan and he knows that. We have given him the GPS numbers of his house and the telephone number."

In an increasingly maverick tour of US cities to publicise his autobiography, In the Line of Fire, Gen Musharraf has hit back. "None of this is true and Karzai knows it. He knows this is not a problem created by Pakistan," he told CNN.

The Bush administration is dependent on cooperation between the two governments, both in the ongoing search for al-Qaida leaders and in the deteriorating war against the Taliban. But the sniping between Mr Karzai and Gen Musharraf has grown steadily more public and intemperate since February.

A strong resurgence of the Taliban has led to fierce fighting in the southern Afghan provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. Suicide bombings have exacted heavy losses among British and Canadian forces operating under the badge of Nato. The fighting is stretching the capability of western forces, and comes as an embarrassment to Washington amid growing clamour over the situation in Iraq.

The White House refused yesterday to release the rest of a secret intelligence assessment depicting a growing terrorist threat to the US fuelled by the situation in Iraq. The press secretary, Tony Snow, said releasing the full report, portions of which Mr Bush declassified on Tuesday, would jeopardise the lives of agents who gathered the information, Associated Press reported.

It would also risk the US's ability to work with foreign governments and to keep secret its intelligence-gathering methods, Mr Snow said. "If they think their work is constantly going to be released to the public they are going to pull their punches," he said.

Much of the focus over Afghanistan now is on whether Gen Musharraf is genuine in his promises to clamp down on Taliban bases in Pakistan. During a recent visit to Kabul, he said he would devote himself to the fight against the Taliban.

But suspicions have been raised among US and British observers by a deal this month between the Pakistan government and tribal leaders in North Waziristan. The region is known to be used by insurgents who frequently cross from there into Afghanistan. Under the pact, some militants will be allowed to stay as long as they abide by the law, and there are fears that this may create a haven for insurgents.

Manjeet Kripalani, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said the historic pattern was for Pakistan to see Afghanistan as its vassal state. "Karzai will once again return home to Kabul a disappointed man unless the United States forces everybody, particularly Pakistan, to keep their promises."

Gen Musharraf's position in the war on terror has been ambiguous from the start. In his book, he admits that soon after the September 11 attacks he considered going to war against the US. He weighed up the consequences and decided he would lose the war after, he claims, the US deputy secretary of state at the time threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the stone age".