KABUL, Afghanistan – U.S. President-elect Barack Obama pledged in a telephone conversation with Afghan President Hamid Karzai that fighting terrorism in Afghanistan and the region would be a top priority during his administration, Karzai's office said Sunday.
The phone call between Obama and Karzai on Saturday is the first reported contact between the two leaders and comes more than two weeks after the Nov. 4 U.S. election. The United States has some 32,000 American forces in Afghanistan, a number that will be increased by thousands next year.
Fighting terrorism and the insurgency "in Afghanistan, the region and the world is a top priority," Karzai's office quoted Obama as saying during the conversation.
Afghanistan has long pressed the U.S. to tackle what it calls the bases of terrorism in Pakistan, and Obama's reported pledge will likely please Karzai, who has accused Pakistan's intelligence service of supporting the Taliban in plotting bombings and other attacks in Afghanistan — claims that Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in its war on terror, flatly denies.
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