KABUL — President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman gave assurances Wednesday that his government is committed to the fight against the Taliban, denying published reports that he threatened to join the insurgents unless the U.S. and its allies ease up on pressure to reform.
The government also announced the resignation of the head of the election commission, which was criticized for its management of last year’s fraud-marred presidential balloting.
Karzai was quoted by members of parliament as saying in a meeting Saturday that he would join the Taliban insurgency if the U.S. and its allies continued pressuring him publicly to do more to end graft, cronyism and electoral fraud.
On Wednesday, presidential spokesman Waheed Omar sought to make light of the firestorm surrounding the Taliban remarks, saying he was surprised to see them in print and had no idea where they had come from.
“That was, I think, a funny thing in the media, and we really, we were shocked to see such kind of comment in the media,” Omar said.
He said the Afghan government has put fighting against terrorism and against “those who put the lives of Afghan people in danger” as its top priority, “and in that context, that comment, whoever has come up with that comment, does not make sense.”
