US will not unilaterally withdraw from Afghanistan: Pentagon chief
Acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has told Washington’s NATO allies that the Pentagon will not reduce its troop presence in Afghanistan unilaterally.
Speaking Thursday in Brussels after his first meeting with NATO counterparts, Shanahan said any potential US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan will be done in a coordinated fashion.
“There will be no unilateral troop reduction, it will be coordinated,” the Pentagon chief told reporters.
Shanahan said the US-led military alliance would work with NATO members to increase what he called diplomatic leverage over the Taliban militant group as the West seeks a political settlement.
US officials have held several rounds of talks with the Taliban in Qatar since last year, which could pave the way for a political settlement to the 17-year war.
However, the discussions have so far excluded the Afghan government itself.
Frustrated with America’s longest war, US President Donald Trump says he wants to reduce and ultimately withdraw the approximately 14,000 US troops currently in Afghanistan.
An additional 8,000 troops from other NATO countries are stationed in Afghanistan as well.
The government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani — excluded from the talks — has complained about the matter and repeatedly stressed that any peace plan must include the Afghan government.
The Taliban’s five-year rule over at least three quarters of Afghanistan came to an end with a US-led invasion in 2001; but 17 years on, the militant group continues to be active on much of Afghan soil.
Currently, Kabul only controls 55 percent of the country’s territory, while the militants have a grip on 12 percent of Afghan soil, according to a report by the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction published in October last year. About a third of the country remains contested.
The Daesh terrorist group has also used the mayhem in Afghanistan to establish a foothold there.
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