Mixed Messages on BSA Signing Timeline

In his speech on the opening of the Loya Jirga in Kabul on Thursday, President Hamid Karzai said that the Kabul-Washington security pact would not be signed - if at all - until after the Presidential elections in April. However, U.S. officials have said the agreement needs to be signed before the end of the year.

 
White House officials said on Friday that the agreement, which would detail the military partnership between the U.S. and Afghanistan after the NATO combat mission ends in 2014, needs to be signed by the end of this year. U.S. officials said that signing it sooner rather than later would give the U.S. and its allies the time they need to plan for a continued presence of foreign troops post-2014.
Afghan officials have since clarified Karzai's statement on Thursday and said that the agreement simply could not be signed until after the National Assembly voted on it.
The Loya Jirga, convening some 3,000 leaders from across the country, is expected to issue a recommendation to the National Assembly on how to proceed with the accord.
A number of Presidential candidates for the upcoming elections spoke out about the agreement following the beginning of the Jirga on Thursday.
"I think this agreement should be signed prior to Presidential elections," Presidential candidate Gul Agha Sherzai said. "If this agreement is not signed, it could have negative impacts on the economy, security and our foreign relations, because we have obligations and so does the United States, so signing this agreement is important to both sides."
But other candidates were not as eager as Sherzai, and expressed a bit more reservations about jumping into a new multi-year commitment with the U.S.
"I think its better to wait, will all the articles of this agreement to be finalized or not," Presidential candidate Qutbuddin Helal said. "We have to wait and see what the advisory Jirga thinks, and what Parliament will decide. I think it's still too early to decide."
It has been said that Kabul and Washington have agreed on most of the articles of the agreement. But, there are still disagreements in regards to the searching of Afghan homes and U.S. unilateral operations in villages. The main source of tension was the violation of Afghan civil rights by U.S. forces, which according to the agreement, would be under U.S. criminal jurisdiction.
Karzai and his fellow negotiators have asked for a guarantee from the White House that civilian casualties will be avoided. U.S. President Barack Obama wrote a letter to Karzai, which the Afghan head of state read at the opening ceremony of the Jirga on Thursday, assuring that civilians would be respected and unilateral operations would only occur under special circumstances.