Afghan President Hamid Karzai will not allow any minister to sign a security pact with the US unless key demands are met, the president’s spokesman said yesterday.
The statement came the day after US Secretary of State John Kerry said the bilateral security agreement (BSA) could be signed by Karzai’s defence minister, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi.
Karazi is demanding the US encourage a nascent peace process with the Taliban and immediately end US raids on Afghan homes, Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Faizi told Reuters.
“As long as these demands are not accepted, President Karzai will not authorise any minister to sign it,” Faizi said.
Meanwhile, a senior US official warned that global support for Afghanistan will fade the longer President Hamid Karzai delays signing the security pact with the US.
The warning came as special envoy James Dobbins arrived in Kabul yesterday for talks with the government.
Frustration is mounting in Washington, and among Nato allies, over Karzai’s refusal to sign a bilateral security agreement (BSA), intended to shape the US military presence in the country beyond 2014.
After an assembly of Afghan elders, called a Loya Jirga, endorsed the pact last month, Karzai surprised the international community when he said he might not sign the deal until after elections in April.
That would hold up vital military planning for a post-2014 mission.
A series of discussions between US and Afghan officials have been held since, to seek an end to the impasse. Dobbins arrived in Kabul as part of that effort, although the US embassy there declined to say if he would meet Karzai.
“The longer this goes on the more that international support will erode,” the US official told Reuters in Washington.
“It is quite clear to us that the delay in signing this agreement is adding tremendous uncertainty to an already uncertain environment in Afghanistan.”
The official said Dobbins’ visit to Kabul was part of regular consultations in the region, but the security pact would be raised.
The US was now at pains to explain to Afghan officials, both publicly and privately, the political and related economic cost of prolonged uncertainty if the deal was not quickly signed, the official added.
Also at stake are billions of dollars in foreign assistance if donors worry about the future of development projects.
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday suggested that Afghanistan’s defense minister or other senior government officials could also sign the pact.
The State Department official denied this was a way of bypassing Karzai.
“The agreement could either be signed by President Karzai or someone he designates, just as on our side an executive agreement could be signed by the president or a cabinet officer, or an ambassador.”