AFTER nearly a year of intense negotiations, it still came down to the wire. As The Economist went to press, a consultative loya jirga called by Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s president, was poised to give its approval for a bilateral security agreement (BSA) with America. The agreement will provide the legal basis for foreign (mainly American) forces to stay in the country after the 2014 deadline for ending combat operations. Without a deal, not only would America have exercised the “zero option” of pulling all troops out of Afghanistan, but the $4.1 billion a year it and allies have pledged to fund Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) would also have been in jeopardy, as well as much civil aid.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 19:41:23 +0000
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