Washington:
US President Joe Biden on Thursday gave his clearest signal however that he would not meet a deadline to pull out all troops from Afghanistan by May 1 but mentioned he would probably finish America’s longest war inside the year.
“It is going to be hard to meet the May 1 deadline in terms of tactical reasons. It’s hard to get those troops out,” Biden mentioned in his initial press conference considering that taking workplace on January 20.
“We will leave; the question is when we leave,” he mentioned. “But we’re not staying a long time.”
Asked no matter if he envisions US soldiers nonetheless in Afghanistan in 2022, the president mentioned: “I can’t picture that being the case.”
Under an agreement negotiated by Donald Trump’s administration with the Taliban, the United States is supposed to pull out all its troops by May 1, practically two decades right after the invasion in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
The Islamist insurgents in turn promised to open peace talks with President Ashraf Ghani’s government, even though there has been tiny sign of headway considering that the meetings started in September in Qatar.
The Taliban also vowed not to let territory to be employed by “terrorists” — the original aim of the US invasion following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Biden’s acknowledgement comes one week right after he mentioned he was in the approach of generating a selection more than the troops, and that a withdrawal on time “could happen, but it is tough.”
‘Safe and orderly’
Last week the Taliban warned there would be “consequences” if Washington did not stick to the agreed timetable — additional raising stress on the fragile peace approach.
On Thursday, Biden noted ongoing international discussions on Afghanistan, like Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s meetings with NATO allies that have troops in Afghanistan.
“And if we leave, we’re going to do so in a safe and orderly way,” Biden mentioned.
Turkey has been organizing a conference of important powers on Afghanistan in hopes of creating international consensus on the country’s future.
The Taliban have largely stuck to a guarantee not to attack US or other foreign troops considering that the agreement was struck in February final year, but they say the date for the withdrawal of US troops is inflexible.
As Barack Obama’s vice president, Biden was one of the most prominent proponents of winding down the US involvement in Afghanistan, judging that tiny else can be gained.
But he has lately mused about leaving a residual force in Afghanistan to carry out counterterrorism operations — an choice probably to be rejected by the Taliban.
Representative Adam Smith, a member of Biden’s Democratic Party who heads the House Armed Services Committee, mentioned this week that the administration wanted at least to sound out the Taliban on permitting a counterterrorism force.
But he mentioned that the general selection remained to withdraw.
“I’m not terribly optimistic,” he mentioned of Afghanistan’s future, “but I don’t think that lack of optimism changes if the US stays for another year or another 10.”
Speaking to a forum of Foreign Policy magazine, Smith mentioned the delay was “purely logistical.”
“Running for the exits pell-mell by May 1 is dangerous,” he mentioned.
“If someone can present to me the military argument that between now and May 1 we can yank 10,000 troops and all the support staff and all the equipment and everything out, well, then you’re a miracle worker,” he mentioned, providing a figure that involves allies.
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