Afghan spokesman rebuffs US end-of-year deadline for agreement troops past 2014 ADVERTISING Afghan spokesman rebuffs US end-of-year deadline for agreement troops past 2014 KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s president on Friday rebuffed American demands that he sign a security pact allowing
Afghan spokesman rebuffs US end-of-year deadline for agreement troops past 2014
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s president on Friday rebuffed American demands that he sign a security pact allowing U.S. forces to stay in the country for another decade, while the U.S. defense secretary warned that planning for a post-2014 military presence may be jeopardized if the deal isn’t finalized by the end of the year.
The stakes are high as Afghan tribal elders and other regional leaders met behind closed doors for a second day to debate the draft agreement seen as necessary to enable thousands of American soldiers to stay beyond a 2014 deadline primarily to train and mentor government security forces who are still struggling to face a resilient Taliban insurgency on their own.
Karzai stunned the U.S. when he urged delegates on Thursday’s opening day of the consultative council known as the Loya Jirga to approve the security pact but said he will leave it to his successor to sign it after the April 5 elections.
His spokesman Aimal Faizi stuck to that stance on Friday despite U.S. pleas, saying “there is no deadline for us except what the president said in his speech.”
The Obama administration has said it will pull all its forces out of Afghanistan without a security deal, as it did when Iraq failed to sign a similar agreement.
Analysis: What filibuster rules change? All roads still lead to ‘Obamacare’ for GOP
WASHINGTON — All roads lead to “Obamacare” for Republicans.
So much so that they acted like they had barely hit a small speed bump when Democrats voted unilaterally on Thursday to weaken century-old Senate filibuster rules and make it harder for the GOP to block confirmation of President Barack Obama’s nominees.
Republican leader Mitch McConnell, with his eyes on the political road ahead and a GOP-damaging partial government shutdown in the rearview mirror, chalked the Senate shift up to “broken promises, double standards and raw power — the same playbook that got us Obamacare.”
The calculation seems to be that there will be time for Republicans to retaliate for the Democratic maneuver that swept away generations of precedent in the tradition-bound Senate. The change didn’t eliminate filibusters, and a spirit of revenge actually may give the GOP an incentive to launch them in greater numbers.
But not now, when the health care law is seen ever less favorably by the public, and has dragged the president’s approval ratings to the lowest levels of his time in the White House.
Ukrainians protest
over EU deal in Kiev square that hosted Orange Revolution
KIEV, Ukraine — Thousands of protesters poured into Kiev’s Independence Square, the center of Ukraine’s pro-Western Orange Revolution, to demand Friday that the government reverse course and sign a landmark agreement with the EU — a day after leaders stunned the nation by saying they were pulling out of the deal.
Braving a freezing rain, up to 3,000 people voiced their desire to move back toward the West and away from the Moscow-aligned course on which President Viktor Yanukovych was taking the country. It was the same day Ukraine marked the anniversary of the Orange Revolution that overturned a fraudulent presidential election result and brought a Western-leaning government to power.
Similar rallies were also held in other cities across Ukraine, and a much bigger demonstration was planned in Kiev for Sunday. The weekend rally will test the strength of the opposition, and some say that a large showing may nudge Yanukovych back in the direction of the EU.
“We must press these leaders to the end so that the agreement is signed next week,” said world heavyweight boxing champion and opposition leader Vitali Klitschko.
by wire sources
“We must force them to fulfill what they have promised.”
One key EU demand in the free trade and political cooperation deal is the freeing of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko — the heroine of the Orange Revolution and Yanukovych’s arch-enemy. Tymoshenko said Friday she was ready to urge the EU to drop demands for her release if that would persuade Yanukoyvch to sign the agreement. There was no immediate reaction from the EU.
By wire sources
