President Barack Obama is said to be seriously weighing a “zero option” that would leave no U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014, the New York Times reported Monday.
Citing both American and European officials, the Times report indicated that Obama’s relationship with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has been gradually deteriorating.
The report said that their relationship reached a “new low” last month after Karzai rejected U.S. peace talks with the Taliban and halted negotiations with the United States over a security deal necessary to ensure that a “residual force” of American troops remains in Afghanistan beyond 2014. A recent videoconference between Obama and Karzai is said to have ended badly.
Read the Times report here.