“We certainly would evaluate whatever continued or further remarks President Karzai makes, as to whether that's constructive to have such a meeting, sure,” spokesman Robert Gibbs said during his daily briefing. He was referring to Karzai's recent accusations that the United Nations and the international community interfered in last year's fraud-tarnished presidential election in Afghanistan.
“Our position on this is that when the Afghan leaders take steps to improve governance and root out corruption, then the president will say kind words,” Gibbs said.
“When leaders need to hear stern language from this administration about the consequences of not acting, we'll do that as well.” White House officials said no cancelation was imminent and noted that the meeting may well go on as scheduled.
But just the fact that the presidential spokesman raised the possibility so bluntly and in such a public setting, very rare in the careful, nuanced world of diplo-speak, showed the depth of anger and frustration in Washington toward Karzai. Declining to schedule a meeting is one thing, as the White House seemed close to doing twice with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But scotching one that is already written in ink on the calendar is quite another.
Karzai was due to meet with President Barack Obama at the White House on May 12.
Obama extended the long-sought invitation during his own visit to Kabul late last month after telling Karzai and his cabinet that he was pleased with progress on anti-corruption measures and the fight against insurgents.
At the time he stressed more needed to be done in both areas.
Since then Karzai has grown more defiant, launching the scorching accusation about Western interference in his elections. Gibbs reiterated on Tuesday the White House's feelings about those remarks, which Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton discussed personally with Karzai by phone on Friday.
“I don't know why somebody continues to insinuate that there was some sort of foreign corruption when the very thing that he speaks of was looked into. So I can't begin to decide what reasoning he had for making those comments,” Gibbs said.
The election comments were not all. In a subsequent private meeting with Afghan lawmakers, Karzai threatened to join the Taleban insurgency if the United States continued pressuring him publicly to do more to end graft, cronyism and electoral fraud, again stunning US officials.
A delicate diplomatic dance also surrounded Netanyahu's visit to Obama two weeks ago. In a break with custom, reporters were not invited to see the two leaders shake hands and begin their talks, and neither side has provided a substantive account of the session. A rift over new Israeli housing planned in east Jerusalem has contributed to the deepest dispute between the US and Israel in decades.
Meanwhile, the administration's point man for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, has canceled plans to visit the region this week for medical reasons, his office said. Holbrooke informed his staff Tuesday that he may have some blocked arteries and will be getting treated in New York this week instead of making the trip.
Holbrooke was to have accompanied a number of other senior US officials on the tour, including the top military commander for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Gen. David Petraeus, and USAID administrator Rajiv Shah.
They still will make the trip. It will be the second high-level visit Holbrooke has not been to the region in recent weeks. Holbrooke's absence was noticed when he did not go with Obama on his surprise trip to Afghanistan last month.
