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| Obama calls Karzai, Abdullah; thanks them for run off |
| Lalit K Jha/PTI / Washington Oct 21, 2009, 12:02 IST |
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US President Barack Obama today thanked his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai on his agreeing to stand for a run-off in elections in Afghanistan, saying it would be a step towards formation of a credible government.
"I had the opportunity to speak with President Karzai this morning and I wanted to congratulate him on accepting the certification of the recent election," Obama told White House reporters at joint media briefing with the visiting Iraqi Prime Minister of Iraq Noori al-Maliki.
The White House later said that during the telephone conversation Obama underscored that this decision was in the best interests of the Afghan people.
"President Obama also called Dr Abdullah Abdullah to express appreciation for his constructive efforts," the White House said.Senior US officials said it was not clear whether the run-off would change the timing of Obama's decision on request by his top commanders for deployment of 40,000 more troops in Afghanistan.
"We have seen the candidates express their willingness to abide by constitutional law and this is the way forward in order to complete this process," Obama was quoted as saying by the White House said. Obama also received an update from US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Einkenberry on developments in the country.
During the talks, the White House said, Obama thanked his top diplomat and his team for their hard and exceptional work in recent days and discussed his appreciation for Senator John Kerry's collaboration with the Ambassador.
Earlier in a statement, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed the decision of Karzai and said that this is in the best interest of the people of Afghanistan.
"The leadership shown by the President (Karzai), Dr Abdullah and all of the other candidates has strengthened Afghanistan and kept faith with the best interests of the Afghan people," Clinton said. "I welcome President Karzai's announcement that he accepts the recommendations of the Electoral Complaints Commission and the Independent Election Commission's statement on the August 20 first round election results," she said.
Later, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said that the second round of election is going to be more challenging than the first one, primarily because of the adverse weather conditions. "We don't minimise the challenges. We didn't minimize them for the first round in August, and it's going to be even more difficult now, I think, with more challenging weather conditions," he told reporters at his daily press briefing.
Pledging full support to the run-off, Kelly said Afghan plans are in place to enable a second round of voting.
However, a State Department spokesman denied reports that Karzai was pushed to accept the run-off.
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