US Senator Lindsey Graham speaks as he takes part in a press conference with unseen US Senator John McCain at the US Embassy in Kabul on January 2, 2014. A decision to release jailed Taliban militants further aggravated US-Afghan relations as pressure mounts for the two countries to sign a deal allowing some American soldiers to stay after 2014. The plan to free 88 insurgent suspects from Bagram jail has outraged US military officials and senators as final negotiations are underway on the long-delayed Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA).
