Loya Jirga Head Rejects Karzai Demand to Delay U.S. Pact Signing

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-23/loya-jirga-head-rejects-karzai-demand-to-delay-u-s-pact-signing.html

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s demand to delay the signing of a security pact with the U.S. until after April’s presidential vote is unacceptable and will harm the country, the head of a council of tribal elders said.

Karzai has “no right” to delay the signing of the accord that would pave the way for a continued American presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, chairman of the loya jirga council called by the president, said yesterday.

“Every demand of Mr. Karzai and ours have been practiced and accepted by them,” Mojaddedi told reporters in front of the council’s compound in Kabul.

President Barack Obama’s spokesman, Jay Carney, on Nov. 22 said the U.S. government needs the Bilateral Security Agreement with Afghanistan done by the end of the year, calling action “imperative” and the U.S. offer “final.” His comments followed those of Karzai spokesman Aimal Faizi, who repeated the Afghan president’s stance that the accord shouldn’t be signed until after the country’s April presidential vote.