Taliban leader warns of US deal consequences
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 13, 2013 11:51PM GMT
Taliban leader Mullah Omar has warned that a security pact between the United States and Afghanistan will have 'serious consequences.'
Kabul and Washington are engaged in negotiation over the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), which determines the future of US forces in Afghanistan after 2014.
"The invaders and their allies should understand (the signature) of the strategic agreement would have serious consequences for them," Mullah Omar said in a statement released on Sunday.
He further told the US that the keeping of its bases in Afghanistan "will never be accepted," adding that the fight against US forces will continue "with more momentum."
The Taliban leader made the comments a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who had held talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry, announced that they agreed on parts of the deal but remained divided on the issue of American soldiers' immunity from prosecution in Afghanistan.
Kerry said that without the issue being resolved "there cannot be a bilateral security agreement."
Washington has repeatedly pressed for the deal to be signed by the end of October. The agreement will allow Washington to keep between 5,000 and 10,000 US soldiers in Afghanistan after 2014.
The collapse of a similar agreement with Iraq in 2011 over the issue of troop immunity led to the US pulling all its troops out of the country.
If no agreement is signed with Afghanistan, all American troops would have to leave by December 31, 2014.
The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 as part of the so-called war on terror.
MR/HN/AS
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