KABUL: The United States warned on Tuesday it would withdraw financial and security support from Afghanistan if anyone tried to take power illegally, as supporters of a presidential candidate rallied in Kabul for a parallel government.
Preliminary results announced on Monday showed that Ashraf Ghani, a former World Bank official, won the June 14 second round, but his rival Abdullah Abdullah immediately rejected the outcome, saying the vote was marred by widespread fraud.
Underscoring the magnitude of the crisis, Abdullah said US Secretary of State John Kerry would visit Kabul on Friday.
Kerry arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for the annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue. The US-China talks finish on Thursday.
Thousands of Abdullah supporters gathered in the capital on Tuesday, demanding their leader form a parallel cabinet and unilaterally assert his own rule — a dangerous move that would further fracture the fragile country.
In a sharp warning, US Secretary of State John Kerry said there was no justification for violence or “extra-constitutional measures”.
“I have noted reports of protests in Afghanistan and of suggestions of a 'parallel government' with the gravest concern,” he said in a statement issued by the US embassy in Kabul.
“Any action to take power by extra-legal means will cost Afghanistan the financial and security support of the United States and the international community.”
