Chuck Hagel receives reassurance that Afghanistan security deal will be signed

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Chuck Hagel receives reassurance that Afghanistan security deal will be signed

Agencies in Kabul
theguardian.com, Saturday 7 December 2013 15.47 GMT

The defence secretary, Chuck Hagel, said on Saturday that Afghanistan's defense minister had reassured him a security agreement with the US will be signed in a timely manner. Hagel also said he did not think more US pressure would be helpful in trying to persuade Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, to sign the agreement.

Hagel had no plans to meet Karzai during his stopover – after meetings with Gulf leaders in Manama – and it was not immediately clear what impact the visit could have on the standoff. Hagel spoke to reporters after meeting the defence minister, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi.

Karzai has tentatively endorsed the agreement and a council of tribal elders, the Loya Jirga, has said it should be signed by the end of the year, as the US has demanded. But Karzai says he wants his successor to decide after Afghanistan's April elections. The president has stood his ground in the face of unrelenting pressure from diplomatic and defence officials.

The deal would allow US troops to stay in the country after 2014, to train local forces and carry out some counter-terrorism missions. Without a signed agreement, all US troops would leave at the end of next year, along with all foreign forces.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/07/afghanistan-us-troops-chuck-hagel

[monmouth3]

1. I wouldn't trust Karzai any further than I could throw him. He's using and exploiting our troops...