WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has expressed optimism on the prospects of a security agreement between the US and Afghanistan, despite a vow by Kabul to suspend talks.
President Hamid Karzai called off the negotiations on a future US military presence in Afghanistan after 2014, saying the discussions would only resume when Taliban insurgents meet with Afghan government representatives for possible peace talks. “We do hope to make progress in the near future on the Bilateral Security Agreement,” Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters. He said discussions would continue and that “the bilateral security agreement process is moving forward.”
The US and Nato allies, Arab countries and Pakistan have pushed both Karzai and Taliban leaders to start a dialogue that might lead to peace negotiations. But when the Taliban opened an office in the Qatari capital Doha that diplomats had seen as a venue for talks, the insurgency portrayed the office as an embassy for an alternative government for Afghanistan, prompting outrage in Kabul.
The Taliban has consistently refused to hold any talks with the Afghan government, with the hardline Islamists labeling Karzai as a puppet of the US. AFP
