U.S. Secretary of State makes unannounced visit to Kabul for talks with Karzai [View all]
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Afghanistan on Friday to advance negotiations with President Hamid Karzai on a bilateral security pact which have hit a wall over two issues that have become deal breakers for the Afghan government.
The United States says it wants the deal done by the end of October, while Karzai has declared it can wait until after presidential elections in April next year, further straining what has become a rocky relationship between the allies.
U.S. officials, speaking en route to Kabul, said Kerry's visit was not intended to close a deal on the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA).
"This is really about us building momentum for the negotiators and helping establish conditions for success of the negotiations going forward," a senior State Department official told reporters.
The deal will determine the presence of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after most are withdrawn in 2014 and a failure to reach an agreement could prompt Washington to pull out all forces, an outcome known as the "zero option".
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/11/us-usa-afghanistan-kerry-idUSBRE99A0CL20131011
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