Rasmussen: NATO to end Afghan mission if US security deal not signed

KABUL: (MEP) – NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Monday that NATO would have to withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan if President Hamid Karzai does not sign the bilateral security agreement with United States.

The comments by Rasmussen come as tensions between Afghan and US remains unresolved to finalize the bilateral security deal between the two nations.

Though the pact was endorsed by majority in the consultative Loya Jirga, however President Hamdi Karzai has raised new preconditions and has said that he will not sign the agreement until after elections next year.

But the US officials insist that the pact should be signed by the end of the year, and has warned that Washington may consider withdrawing all its troops from Afghanistan next year if Karzai did not sign the agreement.

In the meantime, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters on Monday that NATO will not be finalize its own deal with the government of Afghanistan without the Afghan-US security treaty.

Rasmussen said that it will be impossible for NATO to deploy a ‘train, advice, assists’ mission to Afghanistan after 2014, in the absence of a legal framework.

He also added that he was hopeful that President Hamid Karzai would follow the resolution of the consultative Loya Jirga and sign the security deal

NATO to end Afghan mission if US security deal not signed: Rasmussen