Obama to Karzai: US troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014 need immunity

US President Barack Obama has said that Afghanistan must grant US forces legal immunity if Kabul wants American troops to stay in the country beyond 2014.

The US president made the remarks at a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Washington on Friday.

“From my perspective at least, it will not be possible for us to have any kind of US troop presence post-2014 without assurances that our men and women, who are operating there, are in some way subject to the jurisdiction of another country,” Obama said.

The Obama administration has been considering having a permanent force of between 3,000 to 9,000 US troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014.

However, the White House recently threatened to consider a zero option, which means Washington would not leave any American troops in Afghanistan unless Kabul grants them immunity.

During the press conference, Obama pledged that US-led NATO forces would hand the lead role in the fight against militants to Afghan forces in the next few months.

“And today we agreed that, as Afghan forces take the lead and as President Karzai announces the final phase of the transition, coalition forces will move to a support role this spring,” Obama stated.

“Starting this spring our troops will have a different mission: training, advising and assisting Afghan forces,” the US president added.

Karzai said he was pleased by the agreement, because according to its terms there would be no foreign forces in Afghan villages by spring.

“I’m very happy to hear from the president… [that] the Afghan forces will be fully responsible for providing security and protection to the Afghan people… and that the international forces [and] the American forces will be no longer present in Afghan villages,” Karzai stated.

Civilian casualties have long been a source of friction between the Afghan government and US-led foreign forces and have dramatically increased anti-US sentiments in Afghanistan.

The United States and its allies entered the war in Afghanistan in October 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but after more than 11 years, the foreign troops have still not been able to establish security in the country.

The foreign troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014. However, there are still more than 100,000 US-led troops (67,000 US troops and 37,000 coalition forces) in the country.