President urged not to sign BSA with US

KABUL on Monday urged President Hamid Karzai not to sign a bilateral security agreement with the US if he really respected national sovereignty.

If the pact was signed, foreign troops could stay put and enjoy legal protections in Afghanistan, Wahid Muzhda, the front spokesman, warned while addressing a news conference in Kabul.

He also referred to President Karzai chief spokesman Aimal Faizi’s assertion that the war on terrorism in Afghanistan over the past 11 years had been aimless. Given this policy statement, Muzhda asked if there was any rationale for signing the BSA.

He claimed Karzai had agreed with Americans on signing the accord if they ceded control of the Bagram jail to his government, something that raised disturbing questions about Afghanistan’s sovereignty.

A coalition of several parties, the National Unity Front of Afghanistan was established in 2011 to resist the possible an abiding US military presence in the country.   

ml/mud