President Joe Biden will remove all US troops from Afghanistan before this year’s 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, finally ending America’s longest war despite mounting fears of a Taliban victory, officials said Tuesday.
The drawdown delays only by around five months an agreement with the Taliban by former president Donald Trump to withdraw all troops, amid a growing consensus in Washington that little more can be achieved.
Biden, who will make an announcement on Wednesday, has “reached the conclusion that the United States will complete its drawdown — will remove its forces from Afghanistan — before September 11,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
Biden’s decision came just as Turkey announced the dates of a peace conference on Afghanistan that would bring together the government, the Taliban and international partners — though, again, would include few women.
The April 24-May 4 conference “will focus on helping the negotiating parties reach a set of shared, foundational principles that reflect an agreed vision for a future Afghanistan, a roadmap to a future political settlement and an end to the conflict,” the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.
The conference aims to speed up and give an international dimension to slow-moving talks between the Taliban and Afghan government in Qatar.
Many observers believe that the Taliban effectively believes that it has won and can wait out the US withdrawal, but the United States is eager to try to find a lasting peace solution that could bring stability.
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Source: IOL
