KABUL (AP) – US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Sunday on his first trip to Afghanistan as head of the Pentagon that President Joe Biden’s administration wants to see a “responsible end” to the longest war that has the North American nation has fought, but pointed out that the level of violence must decrease so that there is an opportunity to have a “fruitful” diplomacy.
Faced with questions about how much longer US soldiers will stay in Afghanistan, Austin commented that “in terms of an end date or setting a specific date for the withdrawal (of the troops), that is up to my boss.”
He indicated that his visit to Kabul, the capital, where he met with army commanders and high-ranking Afghan government officials, including President Ashraf Ghani, was to enable him to “listen and learn” as well as to “inform my participation” in the assessment of the future of the US forces stationed there.
Last week, Biden said during an interview with the ABC network that the United States will find it “difficult” to meet a deadline that expires on May 1 to withdraw its soldiers from Afghanistan. However, the president said that, if it is extending that term – established in an agreement between the government of former President Donald Trump and the Taliban – would not be for “much longer.”
Austin, who came to Afghanistan after visiting India, said: “There are always going to be concerns about things one way or another, but I think there is a lot of energy going into … doing whatever it takes to achieve a responsible ending. , a negotiated agreement to end the war ”.
The Taliban warned on Friday that there will be consequences if the United States does not meet the deadline. Suhail Shahin, a member of the Taliban negotiating team, told reporters that if the US soldiers stayed after May 1, “it will be like a violation of the agreement. That violation would not be on our part… There will be a reaction to your violation. “
In a statement on the Ghani-Austin meeting, the presidential palace noted that both sides condemned the increase in the level of violence in Afghanistan. The May 1 deadline was not mentioned. Washington is reviewing the deal the Trump administration signed with the Taliban last year and has been increasing pressure on parties to the protracted conflict to find a quick route to a peace deal.
“It is obvious that the level of violence is still quite high in the country,” Austin said. “We would really like to see the violence decrease and I think that if it is reduced, it can begin to allow the conditions to exist for … really fruitful diplomatic work.”
In a tough letter to Ghani a few weeks ago, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that it was urgent to establish peace in Afghanistan, and that all options remained on the table. He also warned that the Taliban were likely to gain territory quickly if US and NATO soldiers withdrew. Washington spends $ 4 billion a year to support Afghanistan’s security forces.
At a press conference in Moscow, the Taliban warned the United States to refrain from missing the May 1 deadline, a day after meeting with senior Afghan government negotiators and international observers to try to reactivate the peace process with the end to end the decades-long war in Afghanistan.
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Baldor reported in Washington. The Associated Press journalist Kathy Gannon in Islamabad contributed to this report.
