Karzai under pressure to strike deal with Abdullah: report

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is under growing western pressure to strike a power-sharing deal with his rival Abdullah Abdullah, amid a surge in unrest that could go out of control if Karzai's rival take to the street alleging rigging in the hotly disputed presidential poll, a news report said today.

Western officials led by the United States are making frantic efforts to force President Karzai into a unity government with his rival Abdullah, as the West tries to stave off looming political disaster following Afghanistan's flawed vote last month.

More than three weeks after the Afghans presidential vote, the country is still faced with a chaotic count that has been marred by allegations of widespread irregularities.

The deepening crisis increases the stakes for Washington and London, where public opinion is growing hostile to the bloody war.

Though Karzai is expected to win, if his share of the vote dips below 50 per cent, a run-off vote will be necessary. However, western officials privately admit that a run-off vote is well nigh impossible at this stage. It places the restive nation in a perilous political limbo as violence spreads across the country.

Abdullah is hoping that international pressure will force a compromise. If that fails he could mobilise street protests in Kabul or render northern Afghanistan, where his ethnic Tajik support base is concentrated, ungovernable by Kabul.

One official in Kabul described "turmoil" behind the scenes, with Western diplomats and Afghan politicians trying to work out a power-sharing deal against Karzai's wishes.

"There's a risk the country would fracture, not in a noticeable way, but in terms of Karzai's ability to exercise power in the north," an official was quoted as saying by The Observer. The turmoil comes against a backdrop of weakening public resolve among western allies. In the US, Democratic politicians are hesitant to commit the extra troops.

Violence in Afghanistan at the present level is the worst in eight years despite a record deployment of more than 100,000 foreign troops. One western official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that in the worst case scenario, events could spin dangerously out of control.

"A situation could arise where Karzai is left to rely on the NDS [intelligence service] and the power of patronage to break any opposition, while Abdullah and his friends use every tool to oust an illegitimate government.

"That leaves western troops with a problem: what do they do, and who is the enemy?" The US ambassador to Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, had a "stormy meeting" with the president last week, sources in Washington told The Sunday Telegraph.

Diplomats are attempting to turn the crisis into an opportunity by forcing Karzai to accept new allies, broadening the Afghan government, and perhaps persuading him to accept a diminished role for the presidency.

"Everybody thinks it is time to sit down and do a deal between Karzai and the Northerners. The Americans are putting a lot of pressure," an official was quoted as saying by the Telegraph.