Pentagon chief gets assurances on Afghan security deal

The U.S. defense secretary received assurances Saturday from his Afghan counterpart that a stalled security agreement with Washington will be signed in "a very timely manner."

Chuck Hagel made a surprise visit to Kabul this weekend and spoke with Bismillah Khan Mohammadi – but the Pentagon chief chose not to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is holding up a pact that would allow a U.S.-led military mission to stay on in the country after the 2014 withdrawal deadline.

"There is not much I could add in a meeting with President Karzai to what's already been said," Hagel told reporters. "That's not my role to pressure presidents."

Hagel and other defense officials insisted that this trip was largely for the purpose of visiting troops before the holidays.

However, the pending agreement was discussed at length during the meeting with Mohammadi, Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Ayub Salang and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi.

Despite Hagel's assertion that pressuring Karzai may not prove productive, both Hagel and Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford – the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan – issued warnings about the approaching deadline.

Dunford told reporters that while he continues to prepare for a post-2014 force that could operate under the security pact, he will have to begin planning for other options if the deal is not signed by year's end. One option, he said, is to pull out all troops.

Dunford said he was more concerned about the psychological effect of Karzai's failure to sign the agreement, according to a report in U.K. newspaper The Guardian. The general said uncertainty about the future presence of coalition forces is resulting in a loss of confidence in Afghanistan.

Hagel said there has to be a cutoff point, and it may be the NATO defense ministers’ meeting in February.

"Some answers are going to be required" at that meeting, he said.

Karzai has tentatively endorsed the agreement, and a council of tribal elders called the Loya Jirga has said it should be signed by Jan. 1, as the United States has demanded.

Karzai has said he wants his successor to decide on the delicate matter after Afghanistan's April elections, and has stood his ground in the face of unrelenting pressure from diplomatic and defense officials.

Without a signed agreement, all U.S. troops would leave at the end of next year, as well as all other foreign forces.

The Associated Press