Washington – National Security Advisor Rice To Meet Afghan President

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    President Barack Obama talks with Secretary of State John Kerry, National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice, and Phil Gordon, White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region, left, in the Oval Office, Nov. 22, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)Washington – U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice will hold talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday amid uncertainty about the future of U.S. troops in the country, a spokesman for Rice told Reuters.

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    The meeting comes a day after an assembly of Afghan elders, known as a Loya Jirga, voted to approve a security pact with the United States that would set out terms for any U.S. troops who stay on after most foreign forces withdraw next year.

    But President Hamid Karzai threw the pact into question by refusing to say whether he would sign it into law.

    “She will meet with President Karzai later this evening at his request,” Rice’s spokesman, Patrick Ventrell, told Reuters.

    Ventrell declined to say what Rice would discuss with Karzai.

    The security pact would let U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan after a NATO-led combat mission ends next year. Karzai told the Loya Jirga he supported the pact, but also said he would only sign it after an Afghan presidential election in April, and following further negotiations.

    The United States is insisting that the pact be signed by the end of the year in order to plan for 2014. President Barack Obama would decide about a further U.S. presence after Afghan authorities approved the deal, U.S. officials say.

    Rice arrived in Afghanistan on the weekend to assess the U.S. mission, her spokesman said, adding that it was her first trip outside the United States as national security advisor.


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