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Karzai unlikely to sign security pact: NATO chief

21 February 2014 01:47 (UTC +04:00)

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he believes that Karzai will not sign the long-stalled pact until April’s presidential election.

“We haven’t so far seen any progress as regards a signature on the Bilateral Security Agreement, and actually I believe that President Karzai will not sign the security agreement, so it will be for his successor to make that decision,” Rasmussen said on Thursday in Athens, where he was attending a European Union defense ministers’ meeting.

Rasmussen also acknowledged that NATO expects a separate pact with Kabul which would be impossible without a deal with the US.

“There will be a separate NATO Status of Forces agreement, but we will not finalize that Status of Forces agreement unless the Afghans sign the Bilateral Security Agreement between the United States and Afghanistan,” the NATO chief added.

Back in November last year, Karzai told an assembly of elders, known as the Loya Jirga, that he will not sign the deal unless certain conditions are met. The Afghan president has demanded that the US immediately stop its military operations on Afghan homes.

The Afghan president has grown increasingly hostile towards the US government over the security agreement that would allow thousands of American troops to remain beyond the 2014 withdrawal deadline.

Earlier this month, Karzai said that he "saw no good" in the US presence in Afghanistan, noting that the US-led NATO mission has failed to bring security.

The Afghan president also warned that he will not allow continued foreign presence if it means more bombs and civilian killings.