Biden to Withdraw US Troops from Afghanistan by September 11
By Staff, Agencies
US officials announced that their President Joe Biden will leave the troops in Afghanistan past the current May 1 deadline but will withdraw them by September 11.
“After a rigorous policy review, President Biden has decided to draw down the remaining troops in Afghanistan and finally end the US war there after 20 years,” a senior administration official told reporters.
The new withdrawal date will coincide with the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States carried out by Al-Qaeda.
Biden, who will lay out his plan during a speech on Wednesday, has been signaling that he would likely miss the May 1 deadline negotiated by the Donald Trump administration and the Taliban as it became clear that withdrawing the remaining 2,500 troops would be difficult and potentially unsafe.
The senior Biden administration official stressed that the pullout would not be subject to further conditions.
“The president has judged that a conditions-based approach, which has been the approach of the past two decades, is a recipe in staying in Afghanistan forever,” the official said.
As officials disclosed Biden’s pullout plans, the US intelligence community renewed deep concerns on Tuesday about the outlook for the US-backed government in Kabul, which has struggled against a resurgent Taliban.“The Afghan government will struggle to hold the Taliban at bay if the coalition withdraws support,” said the US assessment, which was sent to Congress.
It remains unclear how Biden’s move would affect a planned 10-day summit about Afghanistan starting on April 24 in the Turkish city of Istanbul that is due to include the United Nations and Qatar.
“Until all foreign forces completely withdraw from our homeland, the Islamic Emirate will not participate in any conference that shall make decisions about Afghanistan,” The Taliban’s spokesperson Mohammad Naeem said in a Tweet on late on Tuesday.
