KABUL, Afghanistan — In a rebuke to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a grand council of Afghan dignitaries voted Sunday to approve a proposed 10-year security agreement with the United States by the end of the year, agreeing to an American-imposed deadline.
The chairman of the council told Karzai he miscalculated when the Afghan president demanded a delay in signing the agreement until next spring. Chairman Sibghatullah Mojaddedi lectured Karzai, warning that if he delays signing the agreement, “I’ll resign and leave the country.”
“If he had listened to my advice, we wouldn’t have this problem today,” Mojaddedi, 89, a former Afghan president and longtime confidant and mentor to Karzai, said as the president sat stiffly a few paces away.
But Karzai remained adamant that he will not sign the agreement until after the Afghan presidential election in April. That stubborn stance has infuriated U.S. officials, who Friday imposed a Dec. 31 deadline.
Karzai asked the council for more time to negotiate with the United States. “We’ll try to bargain more with the Americans on your behalf” and then sign the agreement much later, he said.
He asked for a chance to apply more political pressure so Afghanistan doesn’t capitulate on the agreement “for free,” that is, without forcing American concessions.
“If there is no peace, this agreement will bring misfortune to Afghanistan,” Karzai added in a somewhat elliptical reference to the potential impact of the accord.
Karzai did not indicate whether he ultimately will brush aside the council’s recommendation and defy the U.S. deadline. The Afghan president is notorious for delaying tactics that seek to extract concessions and keep himself at the center of events, especially as he enters a lame-duck period before his term ends in April.
The council’s bold defiance of Karzai presents an opportunity for the mercurial president to save face and back down on the brinkmanship that has put the security deal in serious jeopardy. Mojaddedi told Karzai bluntly: “If there is a problem in the future” with the agreement, “the jirga is responsible.”
Karzai convened the council, an informal but influential traditional assembly known as a loya jirga, to give himself political cover and deflect responsibility for signing a long-term commitment with the United States, according to many Afghan analysts. Karzai faces significant opposition from Afghan traditionalists who condemn any cooperation with foreigners, especially the United States.
Karzai remained defiant Sunday, telling the jirga’s 2,700 delegates that American soldiers continue to raid Afghan homes and kill civilians. He dug in his heels over that issue last week, just hours after agreeing with U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry on the text of the draft security deal.
President Barack Obama responded with a personal letter to Karzai on Thursday pledging that U.S. troops would enter Afghan homes only in “extraordinary” circumstances and only if American lives were at direct risk.
Mojaddedi confronted Karzai after the president joined him on the stage, firmly reminding him that the U.S. had given written assurances on so-called U.S. night raids. The loya jirga voted to attach Obama’s letter to the text of the proposed Bilateral Security Agreement.
“I repeat: The United States cannot enter Afghan homes and kill people,” Karzai was told by the chairman, who turned to face him on the assembly stage. Mojaddedi, gesticulating forcefully, again told the man he called his “son and student” to accept U.S. assurances and sign now, not later.
Karzai muttered, “All right,” and abruptly left the stage.
