By Rajiv Chandrasekaran,Washington Post
Obama is less firendly with Karzi
Afghan President Hamid Karzai began talking as soon as his luncheon guests had taken their seats in his wood-paneled dining room at the presidential palace in Kabul,across a long table covered with platters of lamb and rice,baskets of flatbread,and glasses of pomegranate juice.
Security was improving,he declared,according to two people in the room. The cultivation of opium-producing poppies had been eliminated in many areas. The economy was on the upswing. He looked across the table at the most important of his visitors and pledged to work closely with a new U.S. administration.
For Karzai,an elegant and engaging politician renowned for his ability to forge compromises between warring factions,the new American coolness is unlikely to be a surprise. Ten days before Obama’s inauguration,Karzai told Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. during a private meeting in Kabul that he looked forward to building with Obama the same sort of chummy relationship he had with Bush,which included frequent videoconferences and personal visits.
“Well,it’s going to be different,”Biden replied,according to a person with direct knowledge of the conversation. “You’ll probably talk to him or see him a couple of times a year. You’re not going to be talking to him every week.”