Karzai Is Unlikely To Meet Deadline On Signing Long-Term Security Deal, U.S. Envoy Says -- Washington Post
The lead American negotiator in talks over a long-term security agreement with Afghanistan has privately warned the Obama administration that its efforts to persuade President Hamid Karzai to sign the document on the U.S. timetable are likely to fail, according to officials.
The assessment, if borne out, would leave the administration with little time to assemble a military coalition to remain in Afghanistan and could raise the chances of a hasty and messy troop withdrawal by the end of the year.
The assessment, transmitted in recent days in a classified cable by U.S. Ambassador James B. Cunningham, follows the administration’s repeated extension of the deadline for an agreement it originally said it expected to complete early last fall. The White House said this week that the document must be signed within “weeks, not months.”
In the cable, Cunningham said he did not think Karzai would agree to sign it before presidential elections scheduled for April.
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Update: Afghan's Karzai not seen meeting U.S. deadline on security deal - report -- Reuters
My Comment: This is a breaking news story. If true .... there is now a very good chance that U.S. and NATO forces will be out of Afghanistan by the end of this year. I expect there will be more news reports on this breaking story overnight, and this blog will be covering it tomorrow morning.
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