Koran-burning incident: Gingrich slams Obama’s apology

February 24, 2012 12:25 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 12:18 am IST - Washington

Republican White House hopeful Newt Gingrich has expressed outrage over President Barack Obama’s decision to apologise to his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai over Koran burning.

“It is an outrage that President Obama is the one apologising to Afghan President Karzai on the same day two American troops were murdered and four others injured by an Afghan soldier.

“It is Hamid Karzai who owes the American people an apology, not the other way around,” Mr. Gingrich, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives said.

“This destructive double standard whereby the United States and its democratic allies refuse to hold accountable leaders who tolerate systematic violence and oppression in their borders must come to an end,” said Mr. Gingrich, the leading Republican presidential candidate.

Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Obama apologised to Mr. Karzai in a letter over the burning of the Koran at at Bagaram air base and added that no politics should be seen into it.

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