Karzai Declines Afghan Security Deal in Absence of Peace Process

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By Eltaf Najafizada Jan 25, 2014 5:49 AM CT

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he won’t agree to a security accord with the U.S. unless a peace process is begun in his country.
A bilateral security agreement, or BSA, which would enable some U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014, “can be signed if the U.S honestly starts a peace process,” Karzai said in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
The U.S. and allied forces have said they’ll leave the war-torn nation by the end of 2014 if a BSA isn’t completed. A meeting of tribal elders in November backed such an agreement and urged Karzai to sign it before the end of 2013. The president instead called on the U.S. to start a peace process with the Taliban and ensure transparent elections this year.

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Afghan president says U.S. should start talks with Taliban or leave

By Mirwais Harooni

KABUL Sat Jan 25, 2014 8:01am EST

Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during a news conference in Kabul January 25, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Mohammad Ismail

(Reuters) - President Hamid Karzai appeared to stiffen his resolve on Saturday not to sign a security pact with Washington, saying the United States should leave Afghanistan unless it could restart peace talks with the Taliban.
"In exchange for this agreement, we want peace for the people of Afghanistan. Otherwise, it's better for them to leave and our country will find its own way," Karzai told a news conference.
The president said pressing ahead with talks with the Taliban, in power from 1996-2001, was critical to ensure that Afghanistan was not left with a weak central government.
"Starting peace talks is a condition because we want to be confident that after the signing of the security agreement, Afghanistan will not be divided into fiefdoms," he said.
Most diplomats now agree that Karzai is unlikely to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) that would allow for some form of U.S. military presence in Afghanistan after the end of 2014, when most troops are due to leave.
Along with reviving peace talks with the Taliban, Karzai is also demanding an end to all U.S. military operations on Afghan homes and villages, including strikes by pilotless trones.

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An Afghan fact-finding mission has found that a recent US airstrike has killed at least 13 civilians in the country’s northeastern province of Parwan.

US airstrike killed 13 Afghan civilians in Parwan: Official

Fri Jan 17, 2014 1:50PM GMT

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A member of a fact-finding mission said on Friday that 13 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed in the US airstrike in Parwan Province on Wednesday. Initial reports had put the death toll at 8.
In a press conference in Kabul, the Afghan official said most of the victims were women and children.
The fact-finding mission began work after President Hamid Karzai ordered an investigation into the deadly attack.
A large number of civilians have been killed or injured at the hands of US-led foreign forces -- most of them in nighttime raids and airstrikes. The casualty rate has risen over the past few months, even though the Afghan government had asked foreign forces to make every effort to avoid killing civilians.
An escalation in the US-led strikes on Afghanistan’s civilian areas has angered both the public and the government.
Afghans have held numerous protest rallies countrywide to condemn such attacks.
Afghan government officials -- including President Karzai himself -- have also frequently condemned the killings of civilians by foreign forces.
The latest development comes as the US and Afghanistan are still at loggerheads over a bilateral security deal. Washington has been mounting pressure on Kabul to sign the deal that would allow several thousands of US troops to stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014.
Afghan political figures have heaped scorn on the US-led forces for committing unforgivable crimes against Afghan women and children since invading the country in 2001.
JR/AB/SS

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Afghanistan Cancels Security Talks With United States

VOICE OF AMERICA   

   

Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen following a security handover ceremony at a military academy outside Kabul, Afghanistan, June 18, 2013. Sharon Behn

June 19, 2013

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Afghan President Hamid Karzai has canceled bilateral security talks with the United States, apparently to protest the opening of formal talks with the Taliban insurgent group. An Afghan statement said the manner in which the Taliban had opened their offices ran directly counter to assurances Washington had given Kabul.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai suddenly announced Wednesday that his government is pulling out of the bilateral talks with the United States. The aim of those talks is to lay out how many U.S. troops will remain in the country after 2014, and what role they will play in Afghanistan.
In a statement, Afghanistan's National Security Council said the talks were suspended due to the “contradiction between acts and statements” made by the United States regarding the peace process.
Analyst Kate Clark of the Afghanistan Analysts Network says Karzai's actions likely reflect the


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