NEW DELHI - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that he hopes the United States will reconsider its stand on a security agreement it wants him to sign in the interests of a lasting peace for his war-torn country.
Karzai reiterated his position that the Afghan people cannot endorse a bilateral security agreement without the U.S. agreeing to end airstrikes and raids on Afghan homes and help broker a peace process with the Taliban.
Karzai said the two conditions were “an absolute prerequisite” for his signing the agreement.
The U.S. is pressing Karzai to sign the deal, which would permit a small force of American military trainers to remain in Afghanistan after the planned 2014 withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Karzai told reporters in New Delhi, India’s capital, that the Afghan people understood the consequences of defying the U.S. and that it could cost them billions of dollars.
“The Afghan people are short of resources. Our military and police will suffer. There will be serious consequences,” he said of the possibility that the U.S. will not leave any forces in Afghanistan after next year’s withdrawal.
“The United States need not frame it that way,” Karzai said, adding that he was working for a “win-win situation where we want both of us to win.”
A national assembly of about 2,500 Afghan elders endorsed the deal last month and recommended that Karzai sign it before the end of the year.
Karzai, however, wants to defer signing the agreement, saying it should be left to his successor after April’s presidential election unless the U.S. agrees to his conditions.
The Afghan leader, who is on a three-day visit to India, held talks Friday with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss regional security and the future of Afghanistan.
Front Section, Pages 9 on 12/15/2013