Karzai says Afghanistan needs U.S. security deal, but little trust

[Yahoo! News - Latest]

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By Hamid Shalizi and Jessica Donati KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai told a meeting of tribal elders and political leaders on Thursday they should support a security pact with the United States, but acknowledged there was little trust between the two nations. A Loya Jirga, or grand council, involving about 2,500 delegates convened a day after Karzai and Washington reached agreement on a pact defining the shape of the U.S. military presence after a 2014 drawdown of a multinational NATO force. I don't trust them and they don't trust me," Karzai told the assembly. "During the past 10 years I have fought with them and they have made propaganda against me." Delegates at the five-day Loya Jirga, many of them bearded men with elaborate turbans but with women among them too, will debate the draft and decide whether to accept it - whether they want U.S. troops to stay, or leave Afghan forces to fight the Taliban insurgency alone.

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