President of Afghanistan says US seeking conclusion of security deal by 'cutting of fuel supplies and support to army'
The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, and his national security council have accused the United States of cutting military supplies, including fuel, to put pressure on the country to sign a security pact, a statement from Karzai's palace said on Sunday. The US embassy in Kabul denied that supplies had been cut.
Tensions between Karzai and his American backers have escalated since the Afghan president said last week that he would not sign a crucial bilateral security deal until a suite of new requirements had been met – despite the deal already being agreed upon.
On Sunday Dianne Feinstein, the chair of the US Senate intelligence committee, had strong words for Afghanistan's president over his refusal to sign the deal. Feinstein, appearing on CNN's State of the Union talkshow, said she thinks Hamid Karzai "is such a cipher" and added that Karzai was "so much the victim of what thought occurs to him right at the moment based on some anger that he feels about something that may not even be related".
In Kabul, the issue was raised during a Sunday meeting of the Afghan national security council.
"The meeting concluded that the cutting of fuel supplies and support services to the Afghan army and police is being used as a means of pressure to ensure Afghanistan … signs the Bilateral Security Agreement [BSA] with the US," said a statement from the presidential palace.
The BSA is a decade-long security deal which would mandate the size and shape of the US military presence in Afghanistan once the Nato combat mission ends next year. Without it, the United States would be unable to maintain troops in the country; it would likely also precipitate the withdrawal of the military forces of most other nations.
Last week an assembly of Afghan elders, known as a Loya Jirga, endorsed the security pact, but Karzai suggested he might not sign it until after national elections next spring.
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