Afghanistan does not want a proxy war between Pakistan and India or anybody else fought on its soil, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday during a visit to Pakistan. Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan are vying for influence in Afghanistan, complicating US-led efforts to end an intensifying Taliban insurgency and bring stability to Afghanistan more than eight years after the Taliban were ousted. Karzai said he did not want any country using Afghanistan against another. “The bottom line is, Afghanistan does not want any proxy wars on its territory,” Karzai told a news conference with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. “It does not want a proxy war between India and Pakistan in Afghanistan, it does not want a proxy war between Iran and the US in Afghanistan,” he said. ‘Twins' Karzai said India was a very close friend and had given much support but Pakistan was like a brother. “India is a close friend of Afghanistan but Pakistan is a brother of Afghanistan. Pakistan is a twin brother ... we're conjoined twins, there's no separation,” he said. “We in Afghanistan are fully aware and recognize that without Pakistan, and without its cooperation in Afghanistan, Afghanistan cannot be stable or peaceful,” he said. Pakistan in peace talks Karzai said Pakistan has a key role to play in peace talks with the Taliban, a possible attempt to quash speculation that his government was trying to sideline its neighbor. Pakistan has offered to help negotiate with the Afghan Taliban. Speculation over Pakistan's role in peace talks with the Taliban has increased in recent weeks following the government's arrest of the group's No. 2 leader in a joint raid with the CIA in Karachi. Pakistan has said very little about the arrests, only officially confirming the arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Gilani said he and Karzai discussed an Afghan request for Baradar's extradition. Talking to reporters, Karzai said that he doesn't know why Pakistan arrested Baradar. But he called on Islamabad to hand over the Taliban commander.
