WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- U.S. officials say they are pushing other Afghan officials to sign a security pact after President Hamid Karzai refused to sign it until after April elections.
The preferred official is acting Foreign Minister Zarar Ahmad Osmani, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.
Speaking to an Afghan television station earlier this week, U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice said it was not possible for the United States to postpone signing the agreement until next spring.
"We're getting the text ready and we'll sign it at a high level," she said, an apparent nod to the possibility that someone other than Karzai could sign it.
Such an achievement wouldn't be possible unless Karzai agreed to it and delegated someone to sign it for him, a senior U.S. official in Kabul said.
Several politicians and analysts in Afghanistan predicted Karzai, under pressure from the military and business community, would find a way to back down.
"He'll sign, believe me, but first he'll push it as far as he can," said Atiqullah Baryalai, Karzai's former deputy defense minister.
The White House says it plans to withdraw its remaining 47,000 troops by the end of 2014 if the pact is not signed this year. That could leave Afghanistan with insufficient foreign military assistance to fight the ongoing Taliban insurgency.
