BARACK Obama told Hamid Karzai he is now planning for a full US troop withdrawal because of the Afghan President’s repeated refusal to sign a security pact.
But in a rare telephone call with Mr Karzai, the US President also held out the possibility of agreeing a post-2014 training and anti-terror mission with the next government in Kabul.
Yesterday’s US threat was the latest twist in a long political struggle with Mr Karzai, who appears intent on infuriating Washington until the day he leaves office, sometime after elections in April.
The Obama administration said its preferred option was to leave behind a residual US force when its combat teams depart Afghanistan after the US’s longest war at the end of this year.
But it will not do so without legal protections enshrined in the Bilateral Security Agreement between the two governments, which Mr Karzai will not endorse.
“President Obama told President Karzai that because he had demonstrated that it was unlikely he would sign the BSA, the US was moving forward with additional contingency planning,” a White House statement said.
“Specifically, President Obama has asked the Pentagon to ensure it has adequate plans in place to accomplish an orderly withdrawal by the end of the year should the US not keep any troops in Afghanistan after 2014.”
The White House had previously warned that Mr Karzai’s intransigence on a deal painstakingly negotiated last year meant it had no choice but to mull the “zero option”. The statement said Mr Obama was reserving the possibility of concluding a BSA later this year should the new government be willing.
It was the most concrete sign yet that Washington could wait out the Afghan electoral process before making a final decision on a future role in Afghanistan. The deal has also been endorsed by a council of elders.
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