Ghani and Karzai meets to resolve differences, mainly on NDS-ISI MoU

President Mohammad Ashraf met with the former President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday night to resolve differences amid reports that the former president is has been trying to undercut Ghani’s government, with the intention of bringing it down.

Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, President Ghani’s economic advisor, told BBC that there is no outstanding issue between President Ghani and Hamid Karzai following last night’s meeting.

He said the former president and President Ghani were at odds mainly due to certain articles of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Afghan Intelligence and Pakistan’s military intelligence – Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

No further details were given regarding the articles which created rift between Karzai and President Ghani.

However, Zakhilwal said Karzai was assured that the controversial items would not be included in the MoU which will be signed by Pakistani and Afghan intelligence agencies.

This comes as a senior Western diplomat told Guardian that Karzai intends to bring down the National Unity Government led by President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani.

The diplomat whose identity was not disclosed in the report further added that an interim government would likely take over should Karzai succeeds to bring down President Ghani’s government.

Karzai would step forward to fill the vacuum as the self-styled father of the nation, the diplomat said, adding that President Ghani is aware of Karzai’s intentions but is keen to avoid an open clash he might not win and tolerated the former president’s maneuvers to a certain extent in the past.

The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Afghan and Pakistani spy agencies led to a conflict between Ghani and Karzai which gave a platform to the former president to launch an attack on Ghani that chimed with public opinion, the paper said, adding that many Afghans saw the deal as selling out to a sworn enemy and as a result Karzai come to be seen by many as a protector of national sovereignty.