AP Interview with US Commander

"If the U.S. does not sign the security deal, it is unlikely that NATO or any of its allies will keep troops in Afghanistan after 2014. Germany has already said that its offer to keep hundreds of trainers in Afghanistan was contingent on American and other soldiers being part of the training mission.
Talks on the deal were suspended by Karzai in June over the opening of a Taliban office in the Gulf state of Qatar.
Those U.S.-sponsored talks foundered before they even began when the Taliban marked the opening of its office with the flag, anthem and symbols of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan - the group's name when they ruled the country. Karzai immediately pulled the plug on talks saying the office had all the trappings of an embassy of a government in exile." MORE