SYDNEY: Australia's longest-serving foreign minister on Wednesday declared that Hamid Karzai had been an "enormous disappointment" as Afghan president, describing him as weak and misleading.
Alexander Downer, who was foreign minister when Canberra committed troops to the decade-long conflict in Afghanistan, said Western powers had "solidly backed" Karzai's ascension but he had let them down.
"I am sorry to say that President Karzai has been an enormous disappointment," Downer, who was in the post from 1996 to 2007, told The Australian newspaper.
"As it turns out, he is a weak leader and he is also an exclusive leader he doesn't include enough people and enough tribes in what is essentially a very tribal sort of society.
"I honestly don't think he has helped the situation."
The scathing remarks come just one day after Australia announced that it was bringing most of its troops home from Afghanistan in 2013, a year ahead of schedule.
Australia, a key coalition ally of the United States, has some 1,550 soldiers stationed in the strife-torn country. Thirty-two have died in the conflict.
Downer said Karzai was "urbane (and) impressive" but always "tells everybody what they want to hear", leading to the impression that "the president is on the same page as me, but the fact is he's not".
Downer said he believed the Australian troop deaths had been "worth the sacrifice" to weed out Al-Qaeda "the initial objective that was done and done well" but he said Afghanistan's longer-term future was shaky.
"If the job is to rebuild Afghanistan as a kind of model democracy for the region, the job will never be done," he said, adding that it was impossible to "just get rid of the Taliban".
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