Reuters reports that “the Obama administration is ‘nowhere near’ deciding to pull out all troops from Afghanistan at the end of 2014, a top U.S. official said on Tuesday, despite mounting frustration President Hamid Karzai has not signed a security deal allowing the military to remain there after next year.”

“‘I have no doubt that the (bilateral security agreement with Afghanistan) ultimately will be concluded,'” Ambassador James Dobbins, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”