Obama’s visiting security adviser tells Karzai to sign agreement

By Rob Nordland, New York Times News Service

Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013 | 9:20 a.m.

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Susan E. Rice, told President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan on Monday to stop his delay in signing a security agreement or potentially face the complete and final pullout of U.S. troops by the end of 2014, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.

But while Karzai was said to have assured her he would sign the deal at some point, he gave no time frame for it. And over dinner at the presidential palace in Kabul, he later insisted on difficult new conditions as well, including the release of all inmates at the U.S. prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, adding to the perception of crisis between the two nations, officials from both countries said.

“Ambassador Rice reiterated that, without a prompt signature, the U.S. would have no choice but to initiate planning for a post-2014 future in which there would be no U.S. or NATO troop presence in Afghanistan,” according to a summary of the meeting released by the White House.

The meeting came a day after Karzai rejected a recommendation from his handpicked assembly of Afghan leadership figures, a loya jirga, that by year’s end he should sign the bilateral security agreement, which would allow for an extended U.S. military presence in Afghanistan after 2014. Karzai told the loya jirga he wanted to wait to sign it until after the Afghan presidential elections in April, while continuing to negotiate with the Americans.

In response, the White House summary said, “Ambassador Rice stressed that we have concluded negotiations and that deferring the signature of the agreement until after next year’s elections is not viable, as it would not provide the United States and NATO allies the clarity necessary to plan for a potential post-2014 military presence.”

Rice warned Karzai that his refusal to sign the agreement would jeopardize aid to Afghanistan, including an annual $4 billion to support its military, which is entirely dependent on U.S. aid.

Karzai expressed his hope that Rice would convey his views to Obama and then return to negotiate the issues further, Karzai’s spokesman, Aimal Faizi, said.

But the White House summary made no mention of any further talks on the issue with Obama, and made it clear the negotiations were considered closed.