US fails to respect security deal with Kabul: Afghan politicians
Iran Press TV
Tue Nov 17, 2015 6:26PM
Top Afghan politicians have accused the United States of failing to fulfill its commitments agreed under the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with Kabul, Press TV reports.
The BSA, which was signed in September 2014, allowed about 10,000 US troops to remain on the Afghan soil with the task of advising Afghan forces on how to fight against militants on battlefields in the war-torn state.
Fazel Hadi Muslimyar, speaker of the upper house of Afghanistan's parliament, told Press TV that Washington has not fulfilled what it has agreed to do under the security pact.
"We are not satisfied with what the US calls training and equipping our forces, donating uniforms to forces and providing them cake and coffee cannot be described as training and equipping. The US should live up to its commitments," Muslimyar said.
Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai, Afghanistan's acting defense minister, also urged Washington to press neighboring Pakistan to adopt tougher measures against militants.
"We need some effective and practical measures to bring an end to this war. As you know, many militants come from Pakistan. So we want the US to urge Pakistan to get tough on the militants and stop its double standard policies towards us," he said.
The deal was signed on September 30 last year, one day after Mohammad Ashraf Ghani was sworn in as the Afghan president. Hamid Karzai, former Afghan president, had resisted calls to ink the BSA for almost a year.
Afghanistan is gripped by insecurity nearly 14 years after the United States and its allies attacked the country in 2001 as part of Washington's so-called war on terror. Although the offensive overthrew the Taliban, many areas across the Asian country still face violence and insecurity.
Thousands of foreign forces still remain in Afghanistan despite the end of the US-led combat mission, which came on December 31, 2014.
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