Second Vice President Mohammad Sarwar Danish on Tuesday said that the revision of the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) between Afghanistan and the US is against the national interests of Afghanistan.

He said that members of parliament should not undermine Afghanistan’s national interests in pursuit of their political differences.

But, some MPs have defied government’s support of the BSA and accuse the US of having failed to abide by the key articles included in the BSA.

“The Wolesi Jirga of Afghanistan (the Lower House of Parliament) approves Afghanistan’s national budget. It is fully aware of the country’s economic and security capacities and vacuums. It is very unlikely that they undermine the country’s national interests for their political rivalries,” said Danish. “Our political leaders should not act in a manner as we saw in the history that we move towards backsliding.”

“If some items of the treaty have been left unimplementable, the Afghan government can ask the United States to act upon those items so that we can witness more progress in areas such as the war against the Taliban and Daesh in Afghanistan,” said Mohammad Abdu, an MP.

Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah on Monday said some politicians were pushing for the review of the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) between Afghanistan and the US in pursuit of their own interests.

“They once again brought it up for debate for their personal objectives, I don’t think that this will help the security situation of our country,” said Abdullah.

But, Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, speaker of the Afghan Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) has said that the call by lawmakers to review the security agreement with the US is in a bid to resolve the ongoing security crisis in Afghanistan.

“The calls to review  the security agreement came in view of the security situation in Afghanistan and the sacrifices we render on a daily basis and because of the security of the Afghan people,” Ibrahimi said.

This comes after Afghan politicians and leaders of a number of political movements this week gathered in Kabul where they discussed Afghanistan’s ongoing political and security situation with a special focus on the issue of peace and the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) signed between Afghanistan and the United States.

This agreement has allowed thousands of US soldiers to remain in the country after 2014 and it has paid the salaries of all Afghan National Defense and Security Force members.

In the wake of a sharp increase in fatalities among security forces in numerous provinces, MPs on Wednesday called for the BSA to be assessed. They said the agreement has not been successful in the fight against insurgency.

Among the main critics was Afghanistan’s former president Hamid Karzai who proposed the Afghan government review the security agreement with the US.

The BSA was initially supposed to be signed by the Karzai administration. But Karzai stunned top US officials and many of his own security officials and the Afghans in general by refusing to sign the agreement. He said that the US first needed to restore peace in Afghanistan before he would sign the pact.

Karzai said that the US had to prove its good intentions by keeping its soldiers out of Afghan homes and promoting peace talks with the Taliban.

Back in 2014, the National Unity Government (NUG) under President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah concluded the crucial Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with the US and Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with NATO, paving the way for about 12,000 foreign forces to remain in Afghanistan post-2014.