Karzai Blasts 'Foreigners'

Harsh remarks illustrate strained ties with US
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 1, 2010 4:16 PM CDT
Karzai Blasts 'Foreigners'
Afghan President Hamid Karzai delivers a speech in Kabul Thursday.   (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Afghan President Hamid Karzai lashed out at the UN and international community today, accusing them of interfering in last year's presidential election and seeking to weaken his authority. His tirade came just days after he got a lecture from President Obama. He didn't specifically mention the US, but his harsh words reflect his increasingly difficult relations with Washington.

During his speech, Karzai acknowledged there had been "vast fraud" in the August vote, which returned him to office for a second term. But "the fraud is not by the Afghans. This fraud has been done by the foreigners," Karzai said. He accused unidentified foreign embassies of trying to bribe members of the Independent Election Commission with offers of bulletproof cars in hopes they would block his first-round victory. (More Hamid Karzai stories.)

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