Press TV
October 8, 2013
US ‘playing cat and mouse’ with Karzai
Audio
Rick Rozoff of Stop NATO International says the United States is “playing cat and mouse” with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
“With the renewed threat of Taliban resurgent and re-conquest of power, the US tells Mr. Karzai that, but for their presence there, that he himself could be overthrown and face possibly a fairly gruesome end,” Rozoff told Press TV on Tuesday.
The United States is pushing for the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) to be signed by the end of October 2013.
But Karzai ruled out any BSA which will allow US and foreign troops to remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014.
The Afghan president said there are some major disagreements with the foreign powers that need to be dealt with before the pact could be considered.
In an interview with BBC in Kabul, Karzai said he would consult the traditional Afghan grand assembly before signing the pact.
The Afghan president had officially suspended BSA negotiations in June to show his strong opposition to the opening of a Taliban office in Qatar. Karzai stated that the opening of the office contradicted earlier US security guarantees to his government.
Elsewhere in the interview, Rozoff quoted a major NATO general as saying that “withdrawal or drawdown … is really a ‘misnomer’ because there would be a continued presence of US and allied NATO military forces in Afghanistan.”
Rozoff noted that the US military presence in Afghanistan was “deadly and ineffectual” over the past 12 years.
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