President Barack Obama has announced that 9,800 US troops will remain in Afghanistan after combat missions end later this year.<br /><br />The decision is contingent on Afghanistan’ s new president signing the Bilateral Security Agreement after the country’s presidential election set for June 14.<br /><br />Sitting President Hamid Karzai has refused.<br /><br />In an interview with euronews Mohammad Omar Daudzai, Afghanistan’s interior minister, says both candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai will sign:“Both candidates have promised that whoever becomes president will sign the agreement in the first week in office and I am sure the US and the Europeans will have nothing to worry about.”<br /><br />On the streets of the capital Kabul there is a distinct lack of trust in the United States:<br /><br />“We expect 40,000 troops to stay here no matter what Obama says,” said one Afghan.<br /><br />Another agreed:“We have our own Afghan security forces to defend our country . The presence of Americans here brings misery and conflict:”<br /><br />Those US troops that remain will bolster the Afghan army and support counter-terrorism operations.
