Majority of Afghans live in fear of foreign troops
7 Dec PRESS TV
A new survey conducted by a non-profit international development
group has found that the majority of Afghan people live in fear of the
foreign troops in the country.
According to the annual poll released by the Asia Foundation on
Thursday, some 77 percent of respondents, or more than three out of four
Afghans, said they would "be afraid when encountering international
forces." The findings come amid mounting frustration in Washington over
President Hamed Karzai's refusal to sign a security deal that would
allow the presence of American troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014.
The US, which has about 46,000 troops in Afghanistan, needs the
security pact to keep thousands of its forces in the country beyond
2014. Karzai says he will not sign the pact unless Washington ends raids
on Afghan homes, among other demands. The Afghan president's spokesman
also said on Wednesday that Karzai would not allow any minister to sign
the security pact unless Kabul's key demands are met. The comment came a
day after US Secretary of State John Kerry said the bilateral pact could
be signed by Afghan defense minister, effectively circumventing Karzai.
"His minister of defense can sign it, the government can sign it,
somebody can accept responsibility for this," Kerry told a gathering of
NATO ministers in Brussels. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen
has urged the Kabul government to sign the so-called Bilateral Security
Agreement (BSA) with the US as a matter of urgency. Washington is also
warning that the global support for Afghanistan will fade, if President
Karzai continues to delay signing the security pact. Washington has
rejected President Karzai's suggestion of the signing to take place next
year.
The US has repeatedly said it will not wait until after the April
2014 presidential vote for the agreement to be to sealed. Karzai has
accused the US of not providing the country with military supplies in an
attempt to pressure him to sign the controversial deal.
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