US President Barack Obama is threatening a complete withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, unless the Hamid Karzai signs a bilateral security agreement.  The phone call from Washington to Kabul was the first time in months that the two leaders were known to have spoken with each other.

The US believes the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) should have been signed more than three months ago.  But Karzai has been delaying the deal until a peace process with the Taliban is underway.  The powers propping up Karzai’s government insist the BSA is necessary to plan for a post-2014 troop presence to support counter-terrorism and training of Afghan forces.  Without it, Karzai and Afghanistan will be all alone in fending off the Taliban.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney expressed growing concerns on Tuesday.

“The longer we go without a BSA, and we have been making this clear, the more challenging it will be to plan and to execute any U.S. mission,” said Carney, adding  “Furthermore, the longer we go without a signed BSA, the more likely it will be that any post-2014 mission will be smaller in scale and ambition.”

Washington has been sick of Hamid Karzai for a few years, seeing him as an erratic, loose cannon playing the US and the Taliban while preserving his own political longevity.