US a step closer to sealing long-term presence in Afghanistan after last-minute compromise over jail at centre of protests

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

The United States has agreed to transfer its main prison in Afghanistan to the control of the Afghan army.

The deal, signed on Friday, at the last minute before a deadline set by Karzai, involved compromises by both sides on an issue that has contributed to months of stalemate in US and Afghan efforts to agree a long-term strategic partnership deal.

The Bagram prison was at the heart of recent deadly protests over the burning of copies of the Qur'an by foreign forces, and has long been resented by the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, as a high-profile violation of national sovereignty.

Karzai had demanded control of the jail by Friday. Management of the complex will now be handed over to a three-star Afghan general as soon as he is named.

The 3,000 Afghan prisoners held there will only gradually be transferred to Afghan custody over six-months, and US forces will provide "technical and logistical support" for a further six months.

US officials involved in the negotiations said their top general would also retain an indefinite ability to monitor prisoner conditions and veto any prisoner release through a "bilateral committee on detentions". That appears to be a tacit recognition of US concerns about Afghan capacity and standards.

The US has long said Afghanistan does not have enough trained guards for the sprawling prison, and Washington has concerns that the Afghan government has sometimes been too quick to release suspected insurgents.

The ability to monitor prisoners is critical because the US is legally bound to ensure humane treatment of anyone it detains, even if passed into other nations' custody, and the Nato-led coalition last year halted prisoner transfer to some Afghan jails because of torture concerns.

The fate of about 50 prisoners who are not Afghan nationals is under discussion. The first 500 Afghan prisoners could be handed over to their government's control within 45 days, US officials said.

The west is keen to have a strategic partnership in place before a Nato conference in May which is expected to set long-term funding for Afghanistan after the 2014 withdrawal of foreign combat troops.

A deal to keep US bases in Afghanistan would allow western leaders to argue that it was not a one-way flow of benefits.

"This memorandum is an important step forward in our strategic partnership negotiations," said General John Allen, commander of the US forces in Afghanistan, at the signing ceremony.

"It is yet another example of the progress of transition, and our efforts to ensure that Afghanistan can never again be a safe haven for terrorists."

US and Afghan officials will move on to discussing control of controversial night-time operations to capture or kill insurgents. Karzai has said they must end before Kabul will sign off on the strategic partnership but western generals say the war is lost without them.

However Karzai's defence minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, suggested that a compromise might also be possible on that issue.

"In the coming few days we will continue our negotiations with government of the United States of America, and will discuss and finalise a new document which is the Afghanisation of the special operations," he said at the signing ceremony.

"By signing the special operations document and this memorandum the conditions of the government of Afghanistan will be fulfilled to pave the way for signing the strategic partnership document with United States of America."