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Karzai: I never claimed Taliban, US are 'colluding'

During a Monday press conference in Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that statements he made two weeks ago, which many took to be an accusation of the
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai shake hands at the end of their press conference at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, on March 25, 2013. Kerry scrapped a planned visit to Pakistan to avoid accusations of...
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai shake hands at the end of their press conference at the Presidential Palace in...

During a Monday press conference in Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that statements he made two weeks ago, which many took to be an accusation of the U.S. and Taliban conspiring to keep troops in Afghanistan, were misunderstood.

"The media took that to say that I said there is a collusion. I never used the word 'collusion' between the Taliban and the U.S., and those were not my words. Those were used–picked up by the media," Karzai said to msnbc's Andrea Mitchell during the press conference.

"I’m confident that the president absolutely does not believe the United States has any interest except to see the Taliban come to the table to make peace," Kerry said of Karzai. "We’re on the same page. I don’t think there’s any disagreement between us. And I’m very, very comfortable with the president’s explanation."