Karzai lobbies for support to woo Taliban moderates

AFGHANISTAN does not want to be an endless burden on its allies, President Hamid Karzai said yesterday as he lobbied for support for plans to woo Taliban moderates on the eve of a London conference.

Karzai visited Germany in the build-up to today’s meeting of 70 countries and organisations supporting his country, where violence has reached record levels eight years into an international effort to defeat the Islamists.

“Afghanistan doesn’t want to be a burden on the shoulders of her allies and friends. Afghanistan wants to soon be defending its own territory, its own people with Afghan means,” he said after meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel.