(11 Dec 2013) America's top military officer has said that the US has no intention of renegotiating a key security deal with the Afghan government, which could see up to 15,000 international troops remain in the country after 2014.
The US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, also warned that without the deal Afghanistan risks reversing gains made by the Afghan National Army against the Taliban.
Speaking from Bagram airbase on Tuesday, he said: "it's not our intention to reopen the text and to re-negotiate that which had been previously discussed."
"It's not a threat, I just simply think that in any negotiation you reach a point when you've made the requirements known," he added.
The US has been trying to get the Afghan government to sign a bilateral security agreement before the end of this year, which would see US troops stay in the country after they end formal combat operations next year.
The deal aims to help train and develop the Afghan National Security forces, and allow smaller US forces to go after al-Qaida and other groups the US see as a threat to regional and global security.
After a year of negotiation, a national assembly, known as a Loya Jirga, signed off on the agreement in November and demanded that President Hamid Karzai sign it by the end of the month.
But Karzai has since said he wants his successor to sign it after the April 5 elections and has added new conditions since it was brokered.
He said he would only sign the deal if the US ends airstrikes and raids on Afghan homes and does more to help broker peace with the Taliban.
Dempsey said that delays in signing the deal would affect the coalition of NATO forces in Afghanistan.
He also said 2015 will be a crucial year of transition for Afghanistan following elections next year.
Dempsey said there would be "level of uncertainty" following the April elections and that Afghan security forces "will need a bit of support through that period."
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