Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar has warned of serious consequences, if an agreement is signed between Washington and Kabul on maintaining a U.S. military base in the country post-2014 withdrawal of NATO forces.
Omar said the U.S. bases on Afghan soil "will never be accepted" and "armed jihad will continue against them with more momentum," Dawn News reports.
The statement comes in response to the announcement of President Hamid Karzai and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that they had reached a partial agreement over the number of U.S. bases to be maintained in Kabul and the status of any soldiers that will remain there after 2014.
The two nations are negotiating the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), but have not been able to fully resolve the sensitive issue of American troop immunity, the report added.
According to the report, BSA would give the under-equipped Afghan army a supporting force after the withdrawal of 87,000 NATO troops by the end of 2014.