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US-Afghan Security Pact Reaches Final Stage

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Afghan soldiers patrol the streets where thousands of prominent Afghans are scheduled to meet for a Loya Jirga in the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013. (Anja Niedringhaus/AP)
Afghan soldiers patrol the streets where thousands of prominent Afghans are scheduled to meet for a Loya Jirga in the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013. (Anja Niedringhaus/AP)

The U.S. and Afghanistan have spent the better part of a year negotiating the Bilateral Security Agreement that would allow for some U.S. troops to stay in Afghanistan after the NATO mission ends next year.

Talks seemed to be breaking down until Secretary of State John Kerry made a surprise trip to Kabul last month for talks with President Hamid Karzai. Those talks led to a draft agreement, though over the last week, that deal appeared again in jeopardy.

Kerry intervened again yesterday and brokered a last-minute compromise that will allow the deal to go before a grand assembly of elders, or Loya Jirga, tomorrow.

NPR's Sean Carberry joins Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson to discuss the agreement.

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This segment aired on November 20, 2013.

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