‘Karzai yet to sign Afghan-US deal’

The senior US negotiator who is in talks to secure the so-called Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with Afghanistan has said that President Hamid Karzai is not likely to ink the deal within the time that Washington expects.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that the estimation was made recently by American Ambassador James Cunningham in a classified cable.

Washington wanted the agreement signed by December 31, 2013, saying it needed time to get ready to keep thousands of troops in Afghanistan.

However, President Karzai has said that he would not be intimidated by the US or pressured into signing the deal and that the matter should be left to the next government after the April elections in Afghanistan.

He has also stated that Kabul could not approve an agreement without guarantees that the US would halt its deadly airstrikes on residential areas of Afghanistan and help broker a peace process with the Taliban.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said this week that the agreement must be signed within “weeks and not months,” adding, “The clock is ticking.”

Cunningham, however, said he did not expect the Afghan president to agree to sign the pact before the April election vote, according to the Post.

The agreement would allow the presence of US troops in Afghanistan beyond the 2014 withdrawal deadline. Without a signed deal, all US and NATO forces would have to pull out from Afghanistan.

“We continue to urge President Karzai to sign the BSA promptly,” a top US State Department official told the sWashington Post when asked about Cunningham’s cable.

On January 2, a group of US lawmakers – including Arizona and South Carolina Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham – said after a meeting with Karzai that they expect the accord to be signed soon.

The American lawmakers said that if the security deal was not signed, it would pose a threat to the country and the region.