Karzai demands release of all inmates at Guantanamo as condition for signing security pact [View all]

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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/26/world/asia/obamas-national-security-adviser-meets-with-karzai.html

U.S. Official Gives Karzai an Ultimatum on Signing Security Pact
By ROD NORDLAND

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Obama’s national security adviser, Susan E. Rice, imposed an ultimatum on President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan on Monday, telling him to stop his delay in signing a security agreement or potentially face the complete and final pullout of American troops by the end of 2014, according to American and Afghan officials.

But while Mr. Karzai was said to have assured her he would sign the deal at some point, he gave no time frame for it. And over dinner at the presidential palace in Kabul, he later insisted on difficult new conditions as well, including the release of all inmates at the American prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, adding to the perception of crisis between the two nations, officials from both countries said.

“Ambassador Rice reiterated that, without a prompt signature, the U.S. would have no choice but to initiate planning for a post-2014 future in which there would be no U.S. or NATO troop presence in Afghanistan,” according to a summary of the meeting released by the White House.

The meeting comes a day after Mr. Karzai rejected a recommendation from his own handpicked assembly of Afghan leadership figures, a loya jirga, that by year’s end he should sign the bilateral security agreement, which would allow for an extended American military presence in Afghanistan after 2014. Mr. Karzai told the loya jirga that he wanted to wait to sign it until after the Afghan presidential elections next April, while continuing to negotiate with the Americans.