Petraeus upset over Karzai's remarks

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus told Afghan officials their president's latest criticism of U.S. strategy threatens to undermine progress in the Afghanistan war.

U.S. and Afghan officials said Petraeus expressed "astonishment and disappointment" when President Hamid Karzai, during a telephone interview with The Washington Post, called for reducing military operations and ending U.S. Special Operations raids in southern Afghanistan, the Post reported Monday.

The officials said Petraeus made several "hypothetical" references to an inability to continue U.S. operations in the wake of Karzai's comments.

The raids are the core of Petraeus's counterinsurgency strategy and key to his being able to demonstrate progress when the White House reviews the Afghan situation in December, the report said.

While discounting reports Sunday that Petraeus threatened to resign, one diplomat said Karzai's comments "at that particular stage, is really undermining (Petraeus's) endeavors. ... Not only his personally, but the international community."

Petraeus "never actually threatened resignation," a senior NATO official said. The general's comments during a meeting with Ashraf Ghani, leader of the Afghan government's planning on transition, were meant to communicate his desire to make sure Afghan leaders understood the situation, the NATO official said.

The controversy erupted just before NATO leaders meet in Lisbon, Portugal, to begin setting a timetable for transferring portions of the country's security responsibilities to Afghan forces. Summit participants also will set 2014 as a deadline to ending coalition combat operations in the Asian country.

U.S. President Barack Obama plans to be at the summit and Karzai is expected to attend.

"We've been (subsequently) assured that President Karzai is fully supportive of the joint strategy, that we share the desire for Afghan forces to take the lead, and that we've worked hard together to address all the issues over which (Karzai) raised concerns and will continue to do so," the NATO official said.