I think that silly hat is preventing oxygen from reaching his brain. I have a running bet with former colleagues that Karzai will be beheaded within 33 days of us leaving in 2014. Others are saying he will escape. I don't think he will.
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Afghan President Karzai to boycott talks with Taliban
The Afghan government will not take part in peace talks with the Taliban unless
the process is "Afghan-led", President Hamid Karzai has said.
His statement came a day after the US agreed to talk to the Taliban in Qatar,
where the militants have a new office.
Mr Karzai said the opening of the office contradicted earlier US security
guarantees to his government.
In protest, he also said he would suspend talks on the US presence in
Afghanistan after Nato leaves in 2014.
Earlier, four US soldiers died in a Taliban attack at an Afghan airbase, heaping
further pressure on the proposed talks.
A spokesman for the Taliban said the militants had launched two rockets at
Bagram airbase, the largest military base for US troops in Afghanistan.
'Afghanised' talks
A statement from Mr Karzai's office said Afghan negotiators would stay away
from the Qatar talks until "foreign powers" allowed the process to be run by
Afghans.
"Unless the peace process is 'Afghanised', the High Peace Council is not
attending the Taliban Qatar talks," the statement said.
The High Peace Council (HPC) is the government set up to leading peace efforts
with the Taliban.
The fact that the Taliban opened its political office in the Qatari capital, Doha,
on Tuesday was "totally contradictory to the guarantees that were made by the
USA to Afghanistan," the statement added.
The office opened just hours after the US announced that it would begin direct
talks with the insurgents - and on the same day that Nato handed over the
security for the whole of the country to the Afghan government for the first
time since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.
According to the BBC's Paul Adams in Washington, the White House has
demanded - and the Taliban accepted - two preconditions for the talks: that the
Taliban make a statement supporting a peace process, and that it opposes the
use of Afghan soil to threaten other countries.
A ceasefire is not part of the preliminary negotiations.
The BBC's Jonathan Beale, in Afghanistan, says the Afghan government clearly
thinks that US preconditions should have included a commitment to talk to the
Afghan government, to acknowledge the constitution of Afghanistan and to
renounce violence.
Meanwhile, President Obama said he always expected "friction" at Afghan peace
talks.
"My hope is that despite those challenges the process will proceed," he said
during an official visit to Berlin on Wednesday.
"Ultimately we're going to need to see Afghans talking to Afghans about how
they can move forward and end the cycle of violence, so they can start actually
building their country".
'Name and flag'
Afghanistan's National Security Council confirmed that President Karzai had
suspended the fourth round of the bilateral security agreement talks.
"There is a contradiction between what the US government says and what it
does regarding Afghanistan peace talks," the president's spokesman Aimal Faizi
said.
He added that the president disagreed with the name given to the new Taliban
office.
"We oppose the title the 'Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan' because such a thing
doesn't exist," Mr Faizi said.
Afghan officials said Mr Karzai also objected to the Taliban flag flying over the
new premises.
'Puppets of Washington'
The first formal meeting between US and Taliban representatives is expected to
take place in Doha on Thursday.
The US met the Taliban secretly in 2011 in Qatar, but these would be the first
open talks between them.
President Karzai had initially said he intended to send HPC delegates to engage
in the talks too.
In the past, the Taliban have always refused to meet President Karzai or his
government, dismissing them as puppets of Washington.
But on Tuesday the insurgents said they would meet Afghans, suggesting they
might be prepared to meet HPC negotiators - that is, of course, if the HPC
representatives reverse their own decision and decide to go.
Mr Karzai has expressed anger at previous US and Qatari efforts to kick-start
the peace process without properly consulting his government, correspondents
say.
There is also concern within the presidential palace that the Taliban will use the
office in Qatar to raise funds.
In March 2012 the Taliban said it had suspended preliminary negotiations with
Washington, citing US efforts to involve the Afghan government as a key
stumbling block.
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