Afghan security deal clouded by dispute over US admission of ‘mistakes’
Confusion over a letter acknowledging US errors in Afghanistan has prevented signing of security pact to cover post-war conduct
Last-minute efforts to finalise a security pact between the United States and Afghanistan were clouded on Tuesday by differences over whether President Barack Obama had agreed to issue a letter acknowledging US mistakes made during the 12-year war.
The Afghan government said it received assurances that such a letter would be provided this week to a grand council of Afghan elders. But Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser, insisted that such an offer – which would draw criticism from Republicans and anger American war veterans – is “not on the table.”
A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said an Obama letter was part of talks on a long-sought-after security pact that would allow a residual force of US troops to stay in Afghanistan beyond next year.
Karzai and US Secretary of State John Kerry overcame the main stumbling blocks to an agreement in a telephone call on Tuesday but the State Department said some issues still had to be resolved before a final draft can be presented to the Loya Jirga, a gathering of Afghan tribal and political leaders that will meet in Kabul starting on Thursday.
Aimal Faizi, Karzai’s spokesman, said the two sides agreed on provisions giving US troops immunity from Afghan law and allowing them to enter Afghan homes in exceptional circumstances, something the Afghan president had resisted.
Faizi said the accord – which must now be approved by the Loya Jirga – was partly due to a promise that Obama would give a written admission of US military errors in a war that has claimed many civilian casualties in addition to combatants.