Russia: Former Afghan President Karzai criticises US intervention in Afghanistan

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai criticised US foreign policy in Afghanistan during a video interview from Kabul with RT's Sophie Shevardnadze in Moscow, Thursday. "The Afghan forces are, no doubt, heroic, but even with a very strong force, if there is continued foreign intervention, and if that intervention is left unanswered for years, you are going to get into a situation like you are in Afghanistan. This has been one of my major issues with the United States, with other allies. First, the training of the Afghan forces, the proper equiping of the Afghan forces, and then adressing the question of sanctuaries beyond Afghanistan," Karzai stated. "As long as that continues, we will continue to suffer, meaning, the sanctuaries abroad, and the helping hand abroad, as long as that continues we will suffer," he added. During a press conference in Washinton, Thursday, US President Obama said that US troops will remain in Afghanistan beyond his presidency in order to train local security forces and to prevent the country becoming a "safe haven for terrorists to attack our nation again." The announcement marked an abrupt turnaround from a plan Obama outlined last year, in which he stated that only a security force of 1,000 would be kept at the US embassy in Kabul beyond his presidency, which ends in January 2017. Video Courtesy of RT SophieCo programme.