KABUL — President Barack Obama’s new envoy to Afghanistan met with President Hamid Karzai on Saturday amid a downturn in U.S.-Afghan relations and an upswing in militant violence.
Karzai said he still has not spoken with Obama almost a month after his inauguration, a sign he no longer enjoys the favored status he had under former President George W. Bush.
“There is tension between us and the U.S. government on issues of civilian casualties, arrests of Afghans, nightly raids on homes and the casualties they cause,” Karzai told al-Jazeera television Friday.
Richard Holbrooke, the envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, met with Karzai at the heavily guarded presidential palace in central Kabul on Saturday. The men set a joint news conference for today.
