KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — A pact aimed at clearing up mistrust and confusion between Washington and Kabul about the future of U.S. troops and aid in Afghanistan has instead sowed more of the same.
Afghan officials worry that the United States is looking for a way to decrease support for Afghanistan after the combat mission ends in 2014, especially in light of U.S. economic woes and waning public support for the war, now in its 10th year.
U.S. officials insist the agreement is designed to allay that fear, but acknowledge the draft agreement is less precise than the Afghans want, and unenforceable.
With Kabul seeking detailed guarantees but Washington insisting on something more vague, it’s not surprising that each side is looking warily at the other.
Negotiators from both countries are to meet in Washington this month to continue their talks. Discussions come at a time when relations already are strained, anti-Americanism is running high in Afghanistan and uncertainty abounds over what will happen to the nation as foreign forces continue their march home.
The document is meant, in part, to give Afghans confidence that the United States will not abandon them after 2014, when U.S. and other foreign combat troops have left or taken on military support roles.
At the same time, it will give the U.S. a legal framework to continue counterterrorism, counter-narcotics and training missions, according to a senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing negotiations.
Two Afghan officials and a senior U.S. official said the goal was to get an agreement before an international conference in December in Germany on the future of Afghanistan.
However, an Obama administration official stressed that there is no deadline for completing the negotiations and that it will be up to leaders of both countries to decide when to sign it. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are sensitive.
Among the sticking points being negotiated:
• Will American forces be stationed on joint or Afghan-run bases?
• Who will take the lead in conducting nighttime kill-and-capture raids, a flashpoint for anger over foreign meddling in Afghanistan?
•Will detention operations be run by the Afghans or Americans?
• What long-term commitments will the U.S. make to support the struggling Afghan government, education and health care?
The document will leave several major questions unanswered, including how long U.S. taxpayers will foot the bill for Afghan security forces, which in 2014 will cost an estimated $8 billion a year.
The agreement also sets up a potential conflict between two U.S. goals for Afghanistan - a base of operations for counterterrorism and a peace deal between the Afghan government and the Taliban insurgency. The Taliban demand a complete withdrawal of foreign forces.
The so-called “strategic partnership agreement” was sought by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and U.S. officials are confident that Afghans’ desire to get something in writing is likely to trump their worry that the document is not specific enough.
But the talks have gone on longer than the Americans wanted, and there is palpable frustration at what two U.S. officials described as circular and repetitive discussions. The two sides already held talks twice this year.
Mr. Karzai has a string of specific demands, including that U.S. troops stop conducting nighttime raids to nab suspected insurgents and that Afghans be put in charge of detention facilities.
He also wants a ban on U.S. launching operations into other nations from Afghan soil. The U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan was launched from Afghanistan.
Some Afghan officials also want the U.S. to equip them with F-16 fighter jets and Abrams tanks - military wares that U.S. officials say are too costly and not needed by the nascent Afghan security forces.
“We will come to an agreement only if our conditions are accepted,” Mr. Karzai boldly told a group of Afghan security officials at a recent meeting.
A senior U.S. official familiar with the negotiations said the Obama administration is not trying to water down the agreement, but can’t - or won’t - negotiate so many details of the relationship at once.
The official said the agreement is supposed to be broad and by design will not carry the force of a treaty.
But Afghans say a vague agreement could leave them vulnerable to the Taliban, and that they need guarantees of support if they are going to risk the ire of neighboring nations like Iran by signing a long-term deal with the U.S. - especially one that will allow tens of thousands of U.S. troops to stay in Afghanistan.
Many Afghans are afraid of trusting the Americans because they felt abandoned by the U.S. after 1989, when the Soviet Union withdrew its army from Afghanistan.
U.S. support to mujahedeen fighters battling the Soviets dried up a few years later, and Afghanistan then sank into civil war. That was followed by the rise of the Taliban and the Sept. 11 attacks by al Qaeda, which was using Afghanistan as a sanctuary.
“There’s a famous saying ’Once bitten, twice shy,’ ” said Shaida Mohammad Abdali, deputy national security adviser and special assistant to Mr. Karzai. “We are worried about our destiny, our future.”
Still, he is confident the two sides eventually will agree to a new pact.
A central question is how many U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan after the international combat mission ends in 2014, and for how long. Estimates have ranged from 20,000 to 40,000.
Two U.S. officials refused to specify any proposed numbers of American soldiers, and said the agreement would not have an expiration date.
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