Hagel in Afghanistan, Won't Meet With Karzai

Updated Dec. 7, 2013 2:27 p.m. ETKABUL—U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday for talks with U.S. military commanders but said he wasn’t going to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a sign of American frustration over Kabul’s failure to sign a bilateral security agreement.
While U.S. and Afghan negotiators have agreed to keep a small number of American troops in Afghanistan after 2014, Mr. Karzai has delayed signing the deal.
U.S. officials had wanted an agreement signed by the end of this year. In a meeting with reporters Saturday, Mr. Hagel declined to set a new “cutoff point” but suggested a possible deadline of late February, before a meeting of defense ministers from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
“Some answers are going to be required at that NATO ministerial,” Mr. Hagel said.
He traveled to Afghanistan to meet with troops, he said, and didn’t seek a meeting with Mr. Karzai.
“That was not the purpose of the trip,” Mr. Hagel said. “I never received an invitation to meet with him. I didn’t expect a meeting with him.”
Mr. Hagel and other defense officials noted that other U.S. officials have spoken with Mr. Karzai in recent days to press the case. The defense secretary said there was little he could add to those discussions.
“I don’t think pressure coming from the United States is going to be helpful in persuading President Karzai to sign a bilateral security agreement,” Mr. Hagel said.
The Afghan presidential palace didn’t respond to requests for comment on Mr. Hagel’s visit.
Mr. Karzai has said he wants to reopen negotiations to secure the release of Afghans held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to open peace talks with the Taliban, and to prohibit raids of Afghan homes by U.S. forces. Mr. Karzai has also proposed the agreement be put off until after the Afghan presidential election scheduled for April.
American officials, including National Security Adviser Susan Rice, have told Mr. Karzai they are done negotiating.
U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, the commander of international forces in Afghanistan, told reporters in a separate briefing Saturday that the U.S. doesn’t routinely enter Afghan homes and wouldn’t regularly do so in the future. But he said the U.S. would need to reserve the right to do so in certain situations.
“There are some circumstances where we could envision a requirement to enter Afghan homes, for example a hostage situation,” Gen. Dunford said. “If there is an issue involving self-defense or force protection, there may be a requirement to enter Afghan homes.”
After arriving in Afghanistan, Mr. Hagel met with his counterpart, Afghan Minister of Defense Bismullah Khan Mohammadi, a meeting also attended by Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Ayub Salangi and the head of the Afghan National Army.
Mr. Hagel said Mr. Mohammadi told him the security agreement would eventually be signed.
Late last month, a Loya Jirga traditional assembly convened by Mr. Karzai voted overwhelmingly to approve the deal and urged a rapid signing by the Afghan leader.
A delay in the agreement, U.S. defense officials have said, will complicate efforts to enlist European allies to join a new multinational mission in Afghanistan, put donor support into question and make planning and withdrawal efforts difficult.
Gen. Dunford said delaying the signing of the security agreement wouldn’t have a major impact on the “physics of moving people and equipment,” but he said there would be a psychological effect, making it more difficult for allied nations to build support for a continued Afghanistan campaign.
Much of the work for preparing for a vastly smaller force has been done already, Gen. Dunford said, with international forces scaling back the number of bases to about 60, from about 800 facilities. Of 50,000 vehicles being sent back from Afghanistan, only 10,000 remain in the country, Gen. Dunford added.
Without a deal, the possibility remains that the U.S. will move to pull out all of its troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. Obama administration officials have said that scenario remains an option, but military officials have said they don’t want to see such a complete withdrawal.
Write to Julian E. Barnes at julian.barnes@wsj.com and Nathan Hodge at nathan.hodge@wsj.com

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