Afghan president says he will run for office again

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
President Hamid Karzai has said he would seek re-election next year in hopes of finishing a job he said he hasn't yet completed. In a candid admission of some of his failures after four years in office, Karzai said Afghanistan does not yet have a functioning government, corruption remains rampant and the Afghan people "still suffer massively" in the fight against terrorism. "So I have a job to do, a job to complete. In that sense, yes, I would like to run," a relaxed-looking Karzai told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday in the presidential palace in the center of Afghanistan's heavily fortified capital. Dressed in a white shalwar kameez, the traditional dress of the region, Karzai reflected on his aspirations for Afghanistan, which is still struggling to recover seven years after the rigid religious Taliban regime were driven from Kabul.