A grand assembly of tribal elders and political leaders called loya jirga is discussing the most crucial agreement about the future of Afghanistan. The jirga which continued for four days will decide upon the fate of long-discussed Bilateral Security Agreement or BSA between the governments of Afghanistan and United States of America. The BSA has been prepared after long negotiations between authorities of the two countries. Negotiations were paused and then started again for multiple times in the past. Once more, with President Hamid Karzai’s opening remarks at loya jirga hall on Thursday, the BSA seems to be facing another deadlock.
The president, quite unexpectedly, announced that even if the jirga approves the security pact, he will sign it after the April elections have been successfully conducted. "This pact should be signed when the election has already taken place, properly and with dignity," Karzai, who cannot run in the 2014 vote under the constitution, told the elders. His statement has come at times when the US authorities have emphasized the end of this year as a deadline for finalizing of the agreement to allow US and its allies plan better for their residual forces in Afghanistan after withdrawing major number of their troops at the end of next year.
The fact that Afghan government called the loya jirga this month indicates that he previously did have on mind to sign the agreement after it is approved by loya jirga and the parliament. If he were to sign it after April election, he would not hurry in calling the jirga so early. What caused the twist in president’s mindset remains to be unknown. Nevertheless, during his speech he admitted existence of a trust gap between him and the US government. "My trust with America is not good. I don't trust them and they don't trust me," Karzai said. "During the past 10 years I have fought with them and they have made propaganda against me. Meanwhile, the letter from President Barack Obama seems not to have satisfied his Afghan counterpart on certain issues one of which is entrance of US troops into Afghan homes during search operations.
No Afghan authority has yet put light over the question that how the President Karzai will sign the BSA after a new president had been elected. But some political pundits have said that the president wants to use the opportunity to gain US support for election candidate he favors.
Meanwhile, it is not clear that the US government that has been emphasizing over rapid finalization of the security agreement would be able to wait for Karzai’s signiture at least six months more. The US authorities have already said the BSA must be concluded by the end of this year.