Obama, Karzai vow to keep pressure on Taliban
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U.S. President Barack Obama and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai agreed that the two countries should continue to keep pressure on the Taliban and to build Afghan capacity, the White House said Friday.
The two leaders made the remarks during their one-hour video teleconference on Friday, said the White House.
Both leaders agreed to continue shared efforts to combat violent extremism, protect the Afghan people, improve governance, and deliver basic services, particularly at the local level, the White House said in a statement.
"President Obama reaffirmed that the United States is committed to partnering with the Afghan people to ensure that Afghanistan is a stable, secure, and prosperous country," said the statement.
The topics discussed by the two leaders included the successful Kabul Conference, the upcoming Afghan parliamentary elections, anti-corruption efforts and so on, said the White House, adding U.S. Ambassador to Kabul Karl Eikenberry and General David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, also participated in the video teleconference.
Obama has set July 2011 as a deadline to begin withdrawing troops. However, the security situation in Afghanistan has not improved dramatically, while U.S. military casualties keep rising.
Meanwhile, U.S.-Afghan relations have experienced rocky moments from time to time. Some in the U.S. have criticized Karzai for failure to fight corruption and trying to reach out to Taliban, which has drawn fierce backfire from him.
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