WaPo: The meeting with Karzai took place a few hours after Obama, Reed and Hagel met with U.S. troops at Camp Eggers, a heavily fortified U.S. base in the center of the Afghan capital.
Karzai and Obama came face to face over a traditional Afghan meal of rice, chicken and mutton at the presidential palace a little more than a week after Obama pointedly criticized Karzai's leadership in the face of deteriorating security conditions. In an interview with CNN, Obama said Karzai had "not gotten out of the bunker" to help the country develop.
Karzai's spokesman declined to say directly whether the two touched on the senator's recent remarks, but he said Obama's comment was not without merits.
"We didn't see that as a criticism per se because there is a degree of realism in that statement and that is the fact that while we are making significant progress in rebuilding our country, we are also facing a significant threat of terrorism that is imposed upon us and the Afghan people," Hamidzada said. "So the fact that we are spending a lot of our resources and energy fighting terrorism that is exported from the south is a reality."
The high-level meeting Sunday came as Afghan officials reported that eight Afghan police were killed and six wounded in a "friendly fire" incident involving NATO forces and Afghan police at an Afghan checkpoint in the western province of Farah. Provincial police chief Khalilulah Rahmani said the incident occurred around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday when Afghan police mistakenly fired on a NATO convoy in the district of Anar Dara. The eight police officers were killed after NATO forces called in an air strike during the firefight.
There seems to be a lot of natural alignment happening with Obama and foreign leaders.
