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| Afghanistan |
| Parties, Analysts Pan Karzai and His 'Preconditions' |
| 2013-11-26 |
[Tolo News] A number of political parties and analysts have spoken out against President Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... 's recent statements regarding delaying the signing of the Kabul-Washington security pact until after the April elections and the imperative of his numerous "preconditions" being met by the U.S. A unanimous majority of the 2,500-member Loya Jirga in Kabul voted on Sunday recommending the Afghan government sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), which would ensure a close military partnership with the U.S. after the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... combat mission ends in 2014, by the end of this year. The BSA would guarantee some U.S. troops stay in Afghanistan post-2014. But the Afghanistan's Caped President has announced he will not sign the accord until after the elections, despite the Jirga's recommendation. He further laid out three preconditions to the U.S. for signing the pact: transparent elections in April, no U.S. raids on Afghan homes and a breakthrough in talks with the Taliban. Many experts have said Karzai is thinking emotionally rather than practically, overstating the leverage Afghanistan has in the negotiations, which began over a year ago. They have argued that Kabul needs the BSA more than Washington, yet Karzai persists with his demands out of pride instead of strategy. "Unfortunately, as it is getting closer to the end of President Karzai's term, he is not thinking about the national interests of Afghanistan and is acting emotionally instead," Afghan political expert Jawed Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... i said. The issue of U.S. unilateral operations in Afghanistan did not take center stage until just last week, days before the Jirga began. Reportedly, Karzai and his negotiating team raised issue with U.S. operations in villages and inspections of Afghan homes unexpectedly and refused to budge on it once debate began. "If President Karzai asks the Americans to stop their operations in the villages of Afghanistan then he should have also asked Afghans to stop providing shelter to bully boyz in their homes," Afghan military expert Helaluddin Helal said. Karzai's preconditions caught many by surprise, and have been called contradictory in part because they don't match-up to stances the President has taken in the past. Regarding the April elections and talks with the Taliban, in particular, Karzai has been adamant about those being Afghan-led and managed. Yet now he demands the U.S. get involved. "This time, the elections will be under the leadership of Afghans, President Karzai didn't even accept the two members of United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... for the Independent Elections Commission," National Coalition Party front man Said Agha Sangcharaki said. "It wasn't the foreigners in the last elections who cheated in Kandahar and a number of other provinces, it was government and groups associated with the government." Prior to the last week's Loya Jirga, President Karzai said that the decision of the Jirga, which was not required by law but rather was convened at the behest of Karzai himself, would be respected by the government. Although the National Assembly must still ratify the pact, it was expected that officials would go with whatever the Jirga recommended. However, death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... Karzai's announcement of his preconditions and that the agreement should not be signed until after the April elections caught most off-guard and led many to question the President's intentions. "President Karzai has turned this agreement as a way to pressure United States and receive benefits from them...he wants assurances for his safety in the future or may be wants his elections team to be supported by the Americans," Sangcharaki said. Following Karzai's comments about waiting until after the April vote to sign the accord, Sebghatullah Mujaddadi, the Chairman of the Loya Jirga, he might flee the country in the next three to four days. Washington has said that it's "neither practical nor possible" to delay the signing. Although no public response to Karzai's preconditions has been offered by the U.S., it is likely they will be the subject of conversation between American National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Karzai this week as she arrives in Afghanistan to meet with him. |
| Posted by:Fred |