US-Afghan accord near collapse due to new Karzai demands

Efforts by the United States and Afghanistan to finalise a long-term security arrangement appeared on the brink of collapse as Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a new set of demands, and the Obama administration said it would be forced to begin planning for a complete withdrawal of US forces at the end of 2014.
In a two-hour meeting in Kabul, Susan E Rice, President Obama’s top national security adviser, told Karzai that if he failed to sign the bilateral security agreement by the end of this year, the US would have “no choice” but to prepare for withdrawal, according to a statement by the National Security Council in Washington, Washington Post reported.
Karzai told Rice that he would sign only after the United States helps his government begin peace talks with the Taliban and agrees to release all 17 Afghan citizens being held in the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, according to Afghan and US officials.
In addition to those new demands, the Afghan leader reiterated that he will not sign if “another US soldier steps foot into an Afghan home”, Karzai spokesman Aimal Faizi said.
If Rice’s unannounced visit to Afghanistan, her first solo trip abroad in office, was designed to convince Karzai that the Obama administration was not bluffing about a complete withdrawal, it did not appear to work. Instead, Karzai doubled down on the position he staked out Thursday, when he shocked both US officials and an assembly of Afghan elders called to approve the deal by saying that he would not sign it until his growing list of demands was met.
Although couched in far more diplomatic language, the National Security Council statement was equally tough, saying that Rice “stressed that we have concluded negotiations and that deferring the signature of the agreement until after next year’s elections is not viable.” It said she “reiterated that, without a prompt signature, the US would have no choice but to initiate planning for a post-2014 future in which there would be no US or NATO troop presence in Afghanistan.”
Failure to sign, Rice told Karzai, would jeopardise not only the $4 billion annually in international pledges to fund the Afghan military after 2014, but also an additional $4 billion that has been promised for Afghan economic development.
A senior US official in Washington, who was not authorised to discuss the sensitive matter on the record, said the Obama administration was deeply frustrated by Karzai’s new demands. “We can continue to disagree, but at the end of the day, we are the ones who have the troops,” the official said.
“He can insist he has new conditions. But we’ve got a plan,” the official said, referring to the agreement.
Gen Joseph F Dunford, the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, and James B Cunningham, the US ambassador to Afghanistan, accompanied Rice to the meeting.
According to Faizi, Dunford said he has instructed all US commanders in Afghanistan to take “all necessary measures” to try to avoid civilian casualties in military missions. Karzai plans to closely scrutinize US military behavior over the coming weeks, Faizi said.
“We need a change in US behavior, so Karzai said, ‘Give us Afghans time to see a change in behavior,’?” Faizi said.
Faizi said Cunningham strongly objected to Karzai’s demand for the release of Afghan prisoners from Guantanamo Bay. But Karzai noted that the members of the loya jirga had also called for such a release, the spokesman said.
The spokesman said the release of the Afghan prisoners is a vital step toward launching a peace process with Taliban militants.
Karzai is also expecting the U.S. government to work with Pakistan’s government to start those talks, the spokesman said.
“He strongly believes Afghan peace is firmly in the hands of the United States first, and secondly in the hands of Pakistan,” Faizi said.