From the Stars and Stripes:
"Afghanistan’s new government set to sign BSA on Tuesday"
One of the first acts of new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s unity government will be to sign a long-awaited Bilateral Security Agreement with the United States that would allow U.S. troops to remain in the country after this year. Ghani’s inauguration Monday marked the country’s first peaceful transition of power in more than four decades. It also capped nearly six months of discord over disputed elections and worry by the U.S. and its allies that an agreement would not be signed in time to keep nearly 10,000 U.S. troops plus allied forces in the country in an advise-and-assist mission after combat forces withdraw at the end of this year. That agreement is to be signed Tuesday.
Ghani’s first act as president was to appoint his main rival in the fractious elections, Abdullah Abdullah, to the newly created post of chief executive in the U.S.-brokered government. Ghani, 65, a former finance minister, emerged as the winner in a contentious five-month-long process involving two rounds of voting, charges of fraud by both sides and a U.N.-supervised recount. He is the country’s second president since the U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban regime in 2001. Karzai, who has been in power since 2002, was constitutionally barred from serving a third term.
Secretary of State John Kerry congratulated Ghani and Abdullah in a statement issued in Washington. He also praised Karzai for having “helped profoundly shape one of the most challenging periods in Afghan history” — although he noted the at times prickly relationship between Karzai and Washington saying it had been “punctuated by disagreements.” “This is a beginning not an ending, and with all beginnings the toughest decisions are still ahead,” said Kerry who brokered the power-sharing deal between Ghani and Abdullah. “As Afghanistan enters this new chapter in its history, the United States looks forward to deepening its enduring partnership with a sovereign, unified and democratic Afghanistan.” The incoming administration faces a host of immediate problems, including an escalating Taliban insurgency, a severe budget shortfall and tense relations with the United States that have deteriorated in Karzai’s last months in office. Ambassador James Cunningham will sign the security agreement on behalf of the United States. The agreement has been ready for signature since before the first round of elections in April, but Karzai refused to sign, leaving that act to his successor. Security was tight throughout the capital, with squads of soldiers and armed police deployed along thoroughfares and at intersections. Traffic was unusually light because the government declared Monday a holiday. Schools, universities and administrative offices were closed for the day. Ghani, a former finance minister in Karzai’s government, lived in the United States for most of the 1980s and 1990s, during the Soviet occupation and subsequent Taliban government. He is also a former World Bank official.
^ It will be interesting to see how the US and other countries treat Afghanistan now that ISIS is a bigger threat than the Taliban or Al-Qaeda. ^
http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/afghanistan/afghanistan-s-new-government-set-to-sign-bsa-on-tuesday-1.305552
"Afghanistan’s new government set to sign BSA on Tuesday"
One of the first acts of new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s unity government will be to sign a long-awaited Bilateral Security Agreement with the United States that would allow U.S. troops to remain in the country after this year. Ghani’s inauguration Monday marked the country’s first peaceful transition of power in more than four decades. It also capped nearly six months of discord over disputed elections and worry by the U.S. and its allies that an agreement would not be signed in time to keep nearly 10,000 U.S. troops plus allied forces in the country in an advise-and-assist mission after combat forces withdraw at the end of this year. That agreement is to be signed Tuesday.
Ghani’s first act as president was to appoint his main rival in the fractious elections, Abdullah Abdullah, to the newly created post of chief executive in the U.S.-brokered government. Ghani, 65, a former finance minister, emerged as the winner in a contentious five-month-long process involving two rounds of voting, charges of fraud by both sides and a U.N.-supervised recount. He is the country’s second president since the U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban regime in 2001. Karzai, who has been in power since 2002, was constitutionally barred from serving a third term.
Secretary of State John Kerry congratulated Ghani and Abdullah in a statement issued in Washington. He also praised Karzai for having “helped profoundly shape one of the most challenging periods in Afghan history” — although he noted the at times prickly relationship between Karzai and Washington saying it had been “punctuated by disagreements.” “This is a beginning not an ending, and with all beginnings the toughest decisions are still ahead,” said Kerry who brokered the power-sharing deal between Ghani and Abdullah. “As Afghanistan enters this new chapter in its history, the United States looks forward to deepening its enduring partnership with a sovereign, unified and democratic Afghanistan.” The incoming administration faces a host of immediate problems, including an escalating Taliban insurgency, a severe budget shortfall and tense relations with the United States that have deteriorated in Karzai’s last months in office. Ambassador James Cunningham will sign the security agreement on behalf of the United States. The agreement has been ready for signature since before the first round of elections in April, but Karzai refused to sign, leaving that act to his successor. Security was tight throughout the capital, with squads of soldiers and armed police deployed along thoroughfares and at intersections. Traffic was unusually light because the government declared Monday a holiday. Schools, universities and administrative offices were closed for the day. Ghani, a former finance minister in Karzai’s government, lived in the United States for most of the 1980s and 1990s, during the Soviet occupation and subsequent Taliban government. He is also a former World Bank official.
^ It will be interesting to see how the US and other countries treat Afghanistan now that ISIS is a bigger threat than the Taliban or Al-Qaeda. ^
http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/afghanistan/afghanistan-s-new-government-set-to-sign-bsa-on-tuesday-1.305552
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