Key Issue Said to Be Resolved in U.S.-Afghan Security Talks

By ROD NORDLAND

American and Afghan officials said Tuesday that they had reached a tentative deal to overcome one of the last major hurdles to a post-2014 security agreement, allowing for American-run raids on Afghan homes but only in “extraordinary circumstances.” Afghan officials said that a long impasse over the issue had been overcome during a phone call by Secretary of State John Kerry to President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday. As part of the agreement, President Obama would be expected to acknowledge past “mistakes” by United States military forces, and to promise such mistakes would not be repeated, according to Mr. Karzai’s spokesman, Aimal Faizi. A spokesman for the American Embassy, Robert Hilton, would not comment on details of the negotiations. Just days ago, Afghan officials said that the raids issue was holding up an overall deal on the so-called bilateral security agreement, which would establish a framework for the continued presence of American troops in Afghanistan after the current 2014 deadline for Western troop withdrawal. But even if both sides agree on a final wording, the Afghans have made their approval contingent on a vote this week by a loya jirga — a grand council of Afghan elders. And for weeks, analysts have said it was unlikely that the jirga would accept any American raids. Those missions have long been an irritant in relations between the two countries. American commanders insist that they are critical to the fight against Taliban insurgents and other militants hiding in Afghanistan. But the raids are deeply offensive to the Afghan public, and President Karzai has long insisted that only Afghan forces be allowed to conduct them. The compromise negotiated on Tuesday would allow American troops to conduct raids and searches of Afghan homes but only in “extraordinary circumstances” in order to save American soldiers’ lives, Mr. Faizi said. That caveat had been offered as an earlier compromise by American negotiators, according to United States officials. But one new factor was introduced on Tuesday during the phone call between Mr. Kerry and Mr. Karzai, Mr. Faizi said: Mr. Kerry proposed that he write a letter acknowledging Afghan suffering from past mistakes of American troops, and promising that such mistakes would not be repeated. The spokesman said that Mr. Karzai then said he would accept that if the letter was signed by President Obama, and Secretary of State Kerry agreed to that requirement. Now, one day remains for negotiators to finalize the proposed wording of the overall security agreement before the loya jirga meets in Kabul.