Karzai says Afghans still lack personal security

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan has achieved political stability, yet Afghans still do not feel personally secure in their daily lives, President Hamid Karzai said in an interview to be aired on Sunday.

"The international coalition and the Afghan government have been able to provide, in the past 10 years, political stability to Afghanistan," Karzai said on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS.

"But we have not been able - the United States, NATO, and Afghan government together - to provide the Afghan people with their individual personal security. That is yet to come," he said.

Karzai said the troops had slowed the mobility and activity of the Taliban and other militant groups, but he stopped short of saying the war has been won.

"I'll have to wait a bit longer to confirm that we have reversed the trend and that the Afghan people will see the fruits of our efforts and see peace and further security," he said, according to a transcript of the interview CNN released on Saturday.

Karzai also said his government would welcome the creation of a Taliban political office where Afghan and other officials could hold meaningful discussions about a possible political resolution to the war. If the Taliban decided to open an office, it would signal the group's willingness to talk peace, Karzai believes.

Efforts to reconcile with the Taliban were dealt a major setback when former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani was assassinated on Sept. 20. Rabbani, who was leading the government's campaign to broker peace with the insurgents, was killed by a suicide bomber posing as a peace emissary from the Taliban.

After Rabbani's death, Karzai said that informal peace efforts would not resume. Instead, he said, the Taliban had to stop fighting and establish an official address.

Last week, Karzai said that if security concerns make it impossible to set up an office in Afghanistan, then it should be established in another Islamic nation, such as Saudi Arabia or Turkey.

"That address must have the clarity that this representative is authorized and is representing the Taliban movement," he said.

Karzai also said that because Taliban leaders were based in neighboring Pakistan, "a meaningful peace process cannot go well or end in satisfactory results without Pakistan's participation and help."

U.S. officials have said that so far, Pakistani officials have not offered to bring Taliban leaders to the negotiating table.

On other issues, Karzai said that U.S. and Afghan officials are still negotiating a strategic partnership document that will govern how some American forces will stay in Afghanistan after foreign troops ends their combat mission in 2014. A sticking point in the talks are nighttime raids that target suspected insurgents and terrorists.

Karzai has repeatedly argued that the troops who push into compounds to search the premises treat too may civilians as if they are insurgents and violate citizens' privacy in an intensely conservative society. He said the raids result in too many civilian deaths.

"What we are asking for, in very specific and clear terms, is that no foreign forces should enter Afghan homes," Karzai said.