Karzai says Taliban are a regional problem

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 16 (UPI) -- Afghanistan's president said in a television interview Wednesday that the ongoing war with the Taliban was a regional problem rather than an internal issue.

Speaking on Dubai's Memri TV, President Hamid Karzai said the Taliban and their al-Qaida allies would have been defeated long ago if not for the protected havens they have established in neighboring Pakistan.

Karzai said that if the insurgency was strictly an Afghan matter, he would have sought negotiations with Mullah Omar and other Taliban leaders. Currently, however, Omar and his lieutenants are likely not even in Afghanistan.

Karzai also repeated previous warnings that the battle had to be taken to the sanctuaries rather than waiting for the insurgents to enter Afghanistan.

"This war against terrorism will never be won by bombing Afghan villages," he declared. "The war of terrorism is not in the Afghan villages."