Top UN official proposed to replace 'tainted' Karzai with a US-friendly figure

Kabul, Dec. 17 (ANI): A top UN official in Afghanistan had proposed a plan to replace President Hamid Karzai with a more Washington-friendly figure three months ago - when the widespread fraud in the presidential election was becoming clear.

The top UN official in Kabul, Norwegian Kai Eide, has revealed that his deputy, American Peter W. Galbraith, proposed that he would begin with "a secret mission to Washington."

"He told me he would first meet with Vice President Biden. If the vice president agreed with Galbraith's proposal they would approach President Obama with the following plan: President Karzai should be forced to resign as president," the New York Times quoted Eide, as saying.

Then a new government would be installed led by a former finance minister, Ashraf Ghani, or a former interior minister, Ali A. Jalali, both favourites of American officials, he added.

According to Eide, Karzai was "deeply upset when he learned of the plan put forth by Galbraith.

"I spent quite some time trying to calm down the accusations of international interference by talking to the president," he said in a in a letter responding to a critical report by the International Crisis Group, a research organization.

Galbraith left the country in early September and was fired weeks later.

In an interview with the paper, Galbraith denied actively promoting the idea of persuading Karzai to leave office.

Galbraith said he only considered an effort to persuade Karzai to leave so that an interim government could be installed in case a runoff election did not occur until May 2010. (ANI)