Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Karzai Unlikely to Sign Security Pact: Report

Karzai Unlikely  to Sign Security Pact: Report

KABUL - The US ambassador in Kabul James Cunningham has privately warned Washington that its efforts to persuade President Hamid Karzai to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement are likely to fail, the Washington Post has reported.

The assessment, transmitted in recent days in a classified cable by Ambassador Cunningham, follows the administration's repeated extension of the deadline for an agreement it originally said it expected to complete early last fall.

President Obama's Press Secretary Jay Carney on earlier this week said that the document must be signed within "weeks, not months."

"If we cannot conclude a bilateral security agreement promptly," Carney said, "then we will be forced to initiate planning for a post-2014 future in which there would be no US nor NATO troop presence in Afghanistan. That's not the future we're seeking. . . . But the further this slips into 2014, the more likely that outcome will come to pass."

In the cable, Cunningham said he did not think Karzai would agree to sign the pact before a presidential election scheduled for April.

"We cannot comment on alleged classified documents," the Washington Post quoted a US official as saying. "We continue to urge President Karzai to sign the BSA promptly," referring to the bilateral security agreement.
The troop agreement would allow US military trainers and counterterrorism forces to remain in Afghanistan after the last American combat troops leave the country by Dec.

That force could be made up of an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 troops, although Obama has not decided on its size. (Tolo News)