Afghanistan’s former president Hamid Karzai has said he strongly disagrees with the decision by the US to strip the country’s foreign reserves and hold $3.5 billion for possible distribution to 9/11 victims, adding that Afghans themselves were the “greatest victims of terrorism”.

“It is morally wrong to take money from the greatest victim and the poorest victim and give it to another victim when both are victims of the same atrocity, of the same oppression,” he said.

Speaking to the Washington Post, Karzai stated that in his opinion the US government needs to help stabilize Afghanistan. He said a coalition of powers should be brought back that will support the country.

He also said that it is important that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) begin a process of inclusivity in the country by launching a grand Afghan dialogue and that the country needs a constitution.

He said this was “for the good of the Taliban (IEA) themselves and for the good of the country.”

He said: “We saw how things didn’t work for Afghan governments when there was one element of it or the other element of our society absent from it.”

According to him the idea of a grand assembly has been discussed with the IEA but that nothing has been decided yet.

Karzai noted that the current crisis in the country will not improve “unless girls go to school, unless opportunities are created and unless all the Afghan people find themselves as owners of this country, as present in decision-making for this country, as represented by the government of the country.”

He went on to say that the war in Afghanistan “was not our war. I was against that war. I was not a partner of the United States in that war against Afghan villages and homes. I stood against it, and I worked against it. I changed from the moment I recognized that this war that is fought in the name of defeating terrorism is actually a war against the Afghan people.”

He said he called the Taliban “brothers” for that reason. “Because the Afghans were being killed on both sides of the divide that foreigners created in us for their own objectives.”

“I wanted the United States of America to be an ally of the Afghan people and not to fight a war in our villages. They knew, the Americans, that the sanctuaries were in Pakistan. They told us that repeatedly. And they would bomb Afghan villages. They would come and tell us that Pakistan was training extremists and terrorists. Then, they would go and pay them billions of dollars. When this was repeated and repeated, I had only one conclusion. The conclusion was either the Americans are doing this on purpose, or that they are extremely naive and out of touch with the realities of this region.”