May 7, 2009

Obama meets with Afghan, Pakistani leaders

Per Voice of America, President Obama says his meetings with Afghan president Hamid Karzai and Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari were "extremely productive" and is pleased with the "unprecedented cooperation" between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the leaders earlier and expressed that both these nations have a common enemy and the U.S. will aide both countries in minimizing civilian casualties.

Karzai acknowledged the fact that democracy in Afghanistan is young and needs special attention from the U.S.

CBS White House Correspondent Mark Knoller tweeted from the news conferences in Washington, D.C.

  1. Mark Knoller
    markknoller Obama proclaims "extraordinarily productive day" in talks with Karzai
    and Zardari.
  2. Mark Knoller
    markknoller flanked by karzai and zardari, obama says we must work together with renewed sense of partnership ... and “take out our common enemy..."
  3. Mark Knoller
    markknoller Obama said he, karzai and zardari are joined by "a common goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda its extremist allies.."
  4. Mark Knoller
    markknoller @janieo actually more surprising that Karzai and Zardari didn't speak, much less take questions. WH wanted to control the message today.

Tweets from the rest of the country react to the sit-down meetings:

  1. Bob Powell
    boogman7 (Pennsylvania/Colorado) The Afghan and Pakistani President meeting with Hillary and Obama doesn't make me feel any better. Would rather see them meet w/Gen Petraeus
  2. JtotheCVS
    jtotheCVS (McKees Rocks, Pa.) @ricksanchezcnn I feel meeting today with Obama will help solve the Taliban problem
  3. Ben McInnis
    benmcinnis (Seattle, Wash.) this Obama press conference on the new Afghanistan-Pakistan-US arrangement sounds EXACTLY like a corporate reorg "all-hands" meeting


Share/Save/Bookmark
blog comments powered by Disqus