(Kabul) – Afghan elders will decide on the key issue of whether American soldiers remaining in the country after 2014 will be granted immunity from prosecution, President Hamid Karzai said. US President Barack Obama said that no American troops would remain behind in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of NATO forces in 2014 unless they were granted immunity from prosecution in local courts.
“The US is standing firm by its demand for immunity for its soldiers,” Karzai told a news conference on his return from Washington where he held talks with President Obama. “The Afghan government can’t decide on this. This is up to the Afghan nation to decide. The Loya Jirga will decide,” he said, referring to the national assembly of tribal elders. Karzai said that on the completion of the US-NATO withdrawal of most of their 100,000 troops, Afghanistan would be “safer and better. I’m fully confident that the situation in Afghanistan will be improved — very, very improved.”
