The US is "interfering" between the Afghanistan government and the Taliban but President Hamid Karzai is "powerless" to do anything, a former minister of the militia regime has said. "Karzai wants to do something but he is powerless," Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, former Taliban minister and former ambassador to Pakistan before the US intervention in 2001, said in an exclusive interview with Italy's AKI news agency on Friday. "People want Karzai to do something to guarantee the future for the people of Afghanistan. People feel disappointed with the Americans here; they are really interfering in everything, the government and the system and in the Constitution," he said. "The ministers are not in honest negotiations with the Taliban," he said. Zaeef was detained in Pakistan in 2002 and later transferred to the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where he was held until 2005. He said the people of Afghanistan are now identifying themselves with the Taliban. "Who is the Taliban? The Taliban is my son, the Taliban is my brother. What is the difference between the Taliban and me?" he said. Zaeef has returned to Kabul and is convinced that the war will continue because the US is not seriously committed to peace. "The Americans have been in Afghanistan for years and the situation has become worse and worse and the people are complaining." "The future of Afghanistan depends on them leaving, their withdrawal. George Bush never thought about peace; when he came to Afghanistan he wanted to do everything by force. Barack Obama is a lot clearer than Bush. But if he really wants to do something for peace, then he has to support the people," he said. The former militia leader has been an advocate of negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government and even with the US but only under the right conditions.