Afghanistan gets new leadership

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghanistan swore in Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai as its second elected president Monday, embarking on a new era with a national unity government poised to confront a resilient Taliban insurgency by signing an agreement with the United States that would guarantee a continuing American military presence.

As Hamid Karzai left the political stage, the new president was locked into an uneasy partnership with his defeated rival, Abdullah Abdullah, who became the country’s first chief executive. With a hug for the cameras, both sides appeared determined to reach across factions and avoid a descent into an abyss similar to what has happened in Iraq, where the government’s failure to mend lingering sectarian divisions following a full U.S. withdrawal helped give rise to the brutal Islamic State.

The new Afghan government was expected today to sign a security agreement that provides a legal framework for the United States to keep about 9,800 troops in the country to train, advise and assist Afghan national security forces after the current international combat mission ends Dec. 31. That number of troops is expected to be cut in half by the end of 2015, and the U.S. would leave only about 1,000 in a security office after the end of 2016.

Karzai, the outgoing president, had refused to approve the deal, which is intended to help Afghan security forces combat the Taliban insurgency.

The Afghan government also is expected to sign an agreement this week with NATO that would outline the parameters of 4,000 to 5,000 additional international troops – mostly from Britain, Germany, Italy and Turkey – to stay in Afghanistan in a noncombat role after the end of this year.

U.S.-Afghan relations will likely improve under Ghani Ahmadzai, a 65-year-old numbers-based technocrat who worked at the World Bank. Karzai, the country’s only leader since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, frequently criticized the U.S. government and irritated American leaders with his mercurial behavior; Karzai was criticized in turn for his inability or unwillingness to tackle corruption in his own government.

On Monday, however, Karzai wore a wide smile as he greeted his presidential guards upon entering the palace, where he presided over the first peaceful transfer of power in the nation’s history. It was made possible by a constitution that he helped draft and that prohibited him from serving a third five-year term.

Ghani Ahmadzai’s first act in office was to swear in Abdullah as chief executive, a role that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry helped create to give voice to both Afghanistan’s northern and southern flanks of power.