By PATRICK QUINN
By PATRICK QUINN
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai urged tribal elders Thursday to approve a security pact with Washington that could keep thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan until 2024, but he added a wrinkle he prefers his successor sign the document after elections next April.
Karzai’s move could be an attempt to avoid taking personal responsibility for an agreement many Afghans see as selling out to foreign interests.
His remarks to the 2,500 members of the consultative council known as the Loya Jirga came as President Barack Obama made a personal plea for quick passage of the agreement in a letter promising to respect Afghanistan’s sovereignty and only raid homes when U.S. lives are at risk.
The Loya Jirga is widely expected to approve the agreement, and Karzai’s remarks could be seen as last-minute move to force the gathering to ask him to sign the long-delayed accord — thus shifting the responsibility for the deal away from him to the elders.
The White House urged that the security pact be signed by the end of the year, with spokesman Josh Earnest saying a failure to finalize an agreement in the coming weeks “would prevent the United States and our allies from being able to plan for a post-2014 presence” in Afghanistan.
Military leaders in the U.S. and NATO widely acknowledge the nearly 350,000-member Afghan National Security Forces are not yet ready to take on the Taliban alone after a war that has lasted more than 12 years. The Afghan forces, however, have kept their ground this summer after taking control of security around the country from foreign forces.