Obama calls for new chapter in U.S.-Afghan relations

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President Obama today called for a new chapter in Afghanistan relations after Hamid Karzai was given another term as president, ending an election that was marred by widespread fraud.

In a televised appearance, Obama said he talked with Karzai after Karzai’s principal opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, pulled out of the race and the runoff election scheduled for Nov. 7 was canceled by electoral officials.

Karzai finished first in the August presidential vote, but a U.N.-backed panel subsequently threw out nearly a third of Karzai’s votes as fraudulent. A runoff was set, but former Foreign Minister Abdullah dropped out of the race, arguing that there were no guarantees that the second vote would be more honest than the first.

Obama, who is weighing the future of U.S. policy in Afghanistan, now in its ninth year of war, said he congratulated Karzai.

“Although the process was messy, I am pleased to say that the final outcome was determined in accordance with Afghan law,” Obama said of the presidential election. He argued that the outcome was important for those in the international community who were allied with the United States in its fight against the resurgent Taliban as well as for the Afghan people.

The issue of the government’s legitimacy goes to the heart of the United States relationship with Afghanistan. Obama is considering a military request for another 40,000 U.S. troops to fight there. Currently, there are 68,000 U.S. troops authorized in the country; NATO has sent about 40,000 more.

The American people would continue to “partner with Karzai and his government,” Obama said he told the Afghan president.

But “this has to be a point in time when we begin to write a new chapter based on improved governance, a much more serious effort to eradicate corruption and joint efforts to accelerate training of forces,” Obama said.

“The proof is not going to be in words but in deeds. We are looking forward to consulting closely with his government in the weeks and months” to come and to assure that the “Afghan people are seeing progress on the ground,” Obama said.

No date for announcing Obama’s decision on troop expansion has been set.

-- Michael Muskal

Follow on Twitter @LATimesmuskal