The Obama administration continues to warn Afghanistan of an early pullout of U.S. forces if it fails to ratify a security pact by the end of the year. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is seeking to delay his signature, calling for an end to U.S. home raids and the release of prisoners from Guantánamo Bay. National Security Adviser Susan Rice issued a warning to Karzai after meeting with him in Kabul.

Susan Rice: “If the agreement isn’t signed promptly, what I said to the president is we would have no choice. We would be compelled by necessity, not by our preference, to have to begin to plan for the prospect that we will not be able to keep our troops here, because they will not be invited because the BSA will not have been signed. And then the nature of our partnership and the investments that we have made will be more difficult to sustain.”