KABUL — Despite Taliban threats, about 2,000 Afghan elders will convene this week as President Hamid Karzai seeks support for a security partnership with the U.S. after the scheduled withdrawal of international troops by the end of 2014.
The loya jirga, or grand council, could give Karzai political cover for negotiations over a deal to keep some American troops in Afghanistan for another decade despite opposition from his people and the war-weary U.S. public.
Karzai has set out terms for a possible partnership — such as banning international troops from entering any Afghan home and taking control of all detention facilities almost immediately — that have so far been unacceptable to American officials, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The roughly 100,000 U.S. troops currently in Afghanistan operate without any bilateral agreement governing their actions.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said discussions were ongoing with the Afghan government.
Karzai has repeatedly vacillated between criticizing the U.S. for acting unilaterally in Afghanistan and praising his American allies as brothers in arms against the Taliban. It has been difficult to tell in recent months whether he is just trying to stoke populist support with his criticism or is really preparing to stand firm on what he sees as a violation of sovereignty.
Few expect the four-day loya jirga, which begins today, to produce much of substance, both because its legal status is unclear and because there is no draft accord to present to the assembled elders. Parliamentarians say the meeting is unconstitutional because it sidelines the legislature, which should be the body to decide national issues.
“The real representatives of the people are in parliament. We have been elected. The jirga delegates have only been selected by the administration,” said Nasrullah Sadiqizada Nili, a lawmaker from Day Kundi province. Although parliamentarians have been invited, Nili said he and many others would not attend in protest.
“This loya jirga has no legitimacy,” Nili said.
On Tuesday, Afghanistan got a new line of credit from the International Monetary Fund, which said the struggling government had taken steps to address governance and accountability issues that surfaced during the Kabul Bank crisis.
The IMF said it had approved a three-year $133.6 million loan for Afghanistan, which had been without IMF backing for more than a year.
