The United States has announced that it will withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan before September 11

President Joe Biden will withdraw all his troops from Afghanistan before September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 2001 attacks., thus ending the longest war in which the United States has fought despite growing fears of a Taliban victory.

The withdrawal will come five months after the agreement with the Taliban reached by his predecessor, Donald Trump, for the American withdrawal.

Biden, who will make the announcement on Wednesday, concluded that the United States can complete the process by 9/11.a senior official said on Tuesday on condition of anonymity.

The Democratic president had previously considered the option of maintaining a residual force in Afghanistan to attack al-Qaeda or respond to possible threats from the Islamic State or, as other presidents have already done, subject the withdrawal to progress on the ground and slow down peace talks. .

At the end, He chose neither and will order a complete withdrawal, leaving virtually no personnel to guard the American facilities., including the imposing embassy in Kabul.

“The president felt that a conditions-based approach, which has been that of the past two decades, would mean staying in Afghanistan forever,” the official said.

Biden “was consistent in his opinion that there is no military solution for Afghanistan, that we have been there too long.”White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Tuesday, without confirming the date of the withdrawal.

For the Afghans, however, the fighting is likely to continue. The official made the brief remarks after US intelligence released a threat assessment report that warned the besieged Afghan government “will find it difficult” to control a “confident” Taliban when the Washington-led coalition pulls together. will withdraw.

The Trump administration struck a deal with the Taliban in February 2020 that all US troops were to leave the country by May 2021 in exchange for the insurgents’ promise not to support Al-Qaida and other extremists., which prompted the initial invasion of 2001.

The Biden official said the pullout will begin in May and the delay was mainly due to logistical reasons, so it is possible that troops will be out of Afghanistan long before 9/11.

The high office warned, however, the Taliban – now in truce with the United States, but not with the Afghan forces – that there will be a “forceful response” in case they attack the troops as they depart.

“We communicated to the Taliban in very clear terms that if they launch attacks against the United States or allied forces while we are making this withdrawal,” he said, “we will react and harshly.”

The threat assessment report released Tuesday by the director of national intelligence noted that the Taliban are “confident of being able to achieve military victory“.

“Afghan forces continue to secure major cities and other government strongholds, but remain committed to defensive missions and have had difficulty maintaining reconquered territory or re-establishing a presence in areas abandoned in 2020,” the document notes.

Afghan civilians, worried about the Taliban’s return to power, paid a disproportionate price for decades of bloody fighting.

A possible rise of the Taliban has also raised fears for a large number of Afghan women. The Taliban, which enforces a stark view of Sunni Islam, banned women from going to schools, offices, music performances, and participating in almost all of civilian life during their years of rule over great part of Afghanistan, including 1996 and 2001.

The Biden official said the United States would use the “tools” at its disposal to continue fighting for women’s rights and He pointed out that 40% of Afghan students are now girls.

“We will do all we can with the international community to protect these conquests, but not by continuing with military force on the ground.”

Biden’s move came just as Turkey announced dates for a peace conference on Afghanistan that can bring together the government, the Taliban and international partners and in which, again, few women will attend. .

“Turkey, Qatar and UN to host high-level inclusive conference in Istanbul between representatives of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban“The Turkish Foreign Ministry reported.

The organizing countries of the conference, which will be held between April 24 and May 4, have pledged to “support a sovereign, independent and united Afghanistan,” the text added.

The conference will aim to lead to “a road map for a future political agreement and the end of the conflict.”“Said the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

But Mohammad Naeem, a spokesperson for the Taliban office in Qatar, said the insurgents will not attend any conference on the future of Afghanistan “until all foreign forces withdraw completely from our homeland.”

With information from Europa Press

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