Afghan president Karzai pushes for deferring security deal with US

Afghan president Hamid Karzai yesterday called on tribal elders to support a security deal with the US, but in a surprising reversal of his stand, said he would defer the signing of the agreement to the winner of next year's presidential elections, which he is barred from contesting as he has completed two terms.

Karzai's statement comes following long drawn negotiations between Afghan and US negotiators eager to finalise the text ahead of  the Loya Jirga, a consultative council of elders and other dignitaries who wield power to derail the pact.

In a last-minute bid to  build support, President Obama, promised in a letter, that the US would continue to respect "Afghan sovereignty" and that the US military would not conduct raids on Afghan homes except under "extraordinary circumstances," involving urgent risks to US nationals. The statement referred to night raids, which had been a particularly sensitive issue with the Afghans.

He further added, "we look forward to concluding this agreement promptly" in the letter, which Karzai read aloud to the 2,500 member council.

Karzai's suggestion to push the signing of the Bilateral Security Agreement until after the 5 April elections could be a deal breaker as the US wanted an agreement at the earliest to allow for preparations to maintain a military presence after 2014, when the majority of foreign combat forces had left Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Major-general Robert Scales (retd) writing for Fox News gave reasons for the US to continue to stay put in Afghanistan.

He said US must stay in the country because it would be in US national interest to do so. He said it needed to be remembered that Al Qaeda started its jihad in Afghanistan and if the US were to withdraw, it would return to rebuild training camps and recruit ''a new generation of jihadists among disaffected young men in the region.''

He cited the example of Iraq, which was tumbling into chaos with thousands being murdered by Al Qaeda gangs every week, with the remnants of the Iraqi insurgency moving into Syria to cause more carnage.

He further wrote that unlike Iraq, which was a relatively wealthy country with some elements of western culture, there would be total chaos in Afghanistan after US withdrawal and the country ''would be penniless and torn apart again by horrific internal chaos.''

He adds that the US must stay to ensure that that there was at least one sanctuary from which the US could ''watch, track and, when the occasion demands.''

Finally, according to Gates, an American intelligence and strike base in Afghanistan would allow the US to keep an eye on Iran.