WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said Wednesday he wants all U.S troops to leave Afghanistan by Christmas, speeding up the timeline for ending Americaâs longest war.
âWe should have the small remaining number of our brave Men and Women serving in Afghanistan home by Christmas!â Trump wrote on Twitter.
In a Feb 29 agreement reached in Qatar with the Taliban, the United States promised to pull out all its troops by mid-2021 in return for insurgentsâ promises not to allow Afghanistan to be used by extremists â the original reason for the 2001 U.S invasion.
After intense U.S cajoling, the Afghan government and Taliban last month opened peace talks in Doha, although negotiations have quickly deadlocked.
Trumpâs promise comes one month before the U.S elections in which the president, trailing in the polls, has sought to show that he is making good on his promise to draw a close to âendless wars.â
After 19 years of U.S military operations his stance enjoys broad support at home including from his Democratic rival Joe Biden, who during his time as vice president had pushed to curtail U.S involvement in Afghanistan.
Asked last month whether he backed Trumpâs plans to withdraw troops from both Afghanistan and Iraq, Biden said: âYes, I do. As long as he has a plan to figure out how heâs going to deal with ISIS,â the ultra-violent movement that has been active in both countries.
Stalemate in talks
The United States first intervened in Afghanistan following the Sept 11, 2001 attacks and dislodged the Taliban regime, which had welcomed Al-Qaeda.
But in the years since the resurgent militants have launched a fresh battle to topple the U.S-backed government in Kabul, with civilians bearing the brunt of spiraling violence since Nato combat troops withdrew in 2014.
The former Taliban regime had imposed an ultra-conservative brand of Islam on Afghanistan that banned music and education for girls.
The Doha talks have quickly deadlocked over the Talibanâs insistence that negotiations adhere to a strict Sunni school of jurisprudence, a step the government says would discriminate against Shiites and other minorities.
Speaking earlier Wednesday, the veteran U.S diplomat who negotiated with the Taliban, Zalmay Khalilzad, nonetheless voiced guarded hope for the talks.
âThe overwhelming majority of the Afghans would like to see an end to the conflict,â Khalilzad, speaking by video from Doha, told a forum of the University of Chicagoâs Pearson Institute.
âI believe that the Taliban are quite serious about the negotiations. Many thought that they wouldnât sit across the table from the Afghan government — that all they wanted was an agreement for the withdrawal of U.S forces. But they are now sitting across the table.â
Trump has already reduced U.S forces in Afghanistan to around 8,600 and the Taliban has stood by promises not to attack Western troops â even as the militants continue their bloody campaign against government forces.
âThe level of violence is too high as far as weâre concerned,â Khalilzad said, although he asserted that Afghan civilian and military casualties had declined in the first half of 2020.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, visiting Doha on Tuesday, called on the Taliban to âhave courageâ and declare a national ceasefire.
The Trump administration had pressed Ghaniâs government to release some 5,000 Taliban prisoners, a condition of the militants to start talks. â AFP
