Kabul won't bow before US pressure to ink bilateral security agreement

Amid trading ifs and buts between the Afghan government and the U.S. administration over inking a security pact known as the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), President Hamid Karzai's chief spokesman Aimal Faizi has pointed out Kabul would not bow to Washington's pressure to ink the accord, local newspaper Daily Mandegar reported on Sunday. "The government of Afghanistan would not submit before the American pressure to ink the security and defense accord unless its conditions are met," Daily Mandegar quoted Faizi as saying. Citing Faizi, the newspaper added that the conditions put forward by President Karzai include halting operations by foreign forces on Afghan houses, beginning honest support to the peace process with Taliban militants and holding transparent elections in Afghanistan slated for April 5 next year. Meantime, another newspaper Hasht-e-Subh in its Sunday edition reported that the U.S. top military brasses have urged Kabul to ink the security pact in its earliest. Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel, according to the newspaper, said last week that inking the BSA in its earliest enables the U.S. to have enough time for planning and deciding the number of troops to remain in Afghanistan after the 2014 pullout of NATO-led forces from the war-torn country. Hasht-e-Subh also added that Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U. S. Joint Chief of Staff, has also noted last week that "Afghan national security forces are still in need of support in the fields of logistic, intelligence and transport" and inking the pact would pave the way for overcoming the problems. Earlier U.S. officials warned that not inking the BSA would pave the way for the total withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and plunging the country into civil war. Outlook, a local English daily, also reported on Sunday that NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed opening negotiation on the NATO Status of Forces Agreement with the Afghan government, but warned this agreement will not be signed until the signature of the BSA between Kabul and Washington. Meanwhile, The Afghanistan Express writes in its Sunday edition that some Afghan parliamentarians who met President Karzai on Thursday revealed that the president would soon sign the controversial accord with the United States. Afghanistan's traditional Loya Jirga or grand assembly of elders and notables in a four-day gathering attended by 2,500 people in late November approved the BSA and called on President Karzai to ink it before the end of 2013, a demand rejected by the president, who said he would not sign it unless his conditions are met.