Afghanistan ‘does not want role in US-Iran hostilities’

Afghanistan ‘does not want role in US-Iran hostilities’:

Apparently, the only sovereignty that matters is that of the US…

Afghan territory should not be used in a proxy war between the United States and Iran, President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday after the Islamic republic captured a US drone.

Karzai was speaking in Kabul after an hour-long meeting with US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who nevertheless said the US would continue to pursue “important intelligence operations”.

The bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel, a stealth drone designed to evade radar for surveillance flights, was launched from Afghanistan on a CIA spying mission when it went missing, US officials have said.

“Afghanistan should maintain and has maintained a very friendly relationship with Iran so we don’t want to be involved in any adversarial relation between Iran and the US,” Karzai said.

“Afghanistan wishes that its sovereignty and territorial integrity is not used one against the other.”

But Panetta said such intelligence operations would continue.

[Kabul (AFP) Dec 14, 2011]