US and Afghanistan Reach Deal to Keep Troops There Beyond 2024

Afghan Loya Jirga to Vote on Pact

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has finalized negotiations with Secretary of State John Kerry on a Bilateral Security Agreement which will govern US occupation forces in the nation “through 2024 and beyond.”

The exact text of the final terms hasn’t been released, but the deal is said to allow US night raids against Afghan homes unspecified “exceptional circumstances, and won’t include any US apology for civilian deaths.

According to Kerry, the question of a US apology, a rumor that swirled yesterday, wasn’t even broached by Karzai. The Karzai office had suggested some statement of wrongdoing might be expected, however, that wouldn’t technically be an apology.

The pact will be voted on Thursday by the Afghan Loya Jirga, which might well kill the deal over the matter of night raids, which have been hugely unpopular within Afghanistan. The US Congress will not get any such opportunity to debate the pact nor to vote on it.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.