President Barack Obama has told his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai that he's now planning a full US troop withdrawal, but hasn't ruled out agreeing a post-2014 mission with the next Kabul government.
The US threat was the latest twist in a long political tug-of-war with Karzai, who has infuriated Washington with his refusal to sign a Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) governing a post-2014 mission in the dying months of his mandate.
"President Obama told President Karzai that because he has demonstrated that it is unlikely that he will sign the BSA, the United States is moving forward with additional contingency planning," the statement said on Tuesday.
"Specifically, President Obama has asked the Pentagon to ensure that it has adequate plans in place to accomplish an orderly withdrawal by the end of the year should the US not keep any troops in Afghanistan after 2014."
The White House has previously warned that Karzai's intransigence on a deal painstakingly negotiated last year meant it had no choice but to consider a full withdrawal.
It refuses to leave troops behind in Afghanistan after America's longest war without the legal protections granted by the BSA.
Though Karzai has refused to sign the pact, which defines a post-2014 NATO training and anti-terror mission, some of the candidates in April's Afghan elections have indicated they would sign it. The deal has also been endorsed by a council of tribal elders.
The statement said that Obama was reserving the "possibility of concluding a BSA with Afghanistan later this year", should he find a willing partner in the government.
It was the most concrete sign yet that Washington may be willing to wait out the Afghan electoral process before making a final decision on a future role in Afghanistan.
