Total US troop pull-out raised as Afghan leader balks at security pact
Karzai's refusal to sign security pact raises prospect of all Western troops going next year
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has refused to sign a security deal with the United States, the White House said, and Washington may have to resort to the "zero option" of withdrawing all American troops from the strife-torn country next year, as it did in Iraq.
Karzai told US National Security Adviser Susan Rice in Kabul on Monday that the United States must put an immediate end to military raids on Afghan homes and demonstrate its commitment to peace talks before he would sign a bilateral security pact.
The White House said Karzai had outlined new conditions in the meeting with Rice and "indicated he is not prepared to sign the [bilateral security agreement] promptly".
"Without a prompt signature, the US would have no choice but to initiate planning for a post-2014 future in which there would be no US or Nato troop presence in Afghanistan," a White House statement quoted Rice as saying.
On Sunday, an assembly of Afghan elders endorsed the security pact, but Karzai suggested he might not sign it until after national elections next spring.
The impasse strengthens questions about whether any US and Nato troops will remain after the end of next year in Afghanistan, which faces a still-potent insurgency waged by Taliban militants and is still training its own military.
US troops have been in Afghanistan since leading multinational forces in ousting the Taliban regime in late 2001.