President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he likely would break an agreement with the Taliban negotiated by the Trump administration to pull out all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 1, but he indicated that he will remove those forces by next year.
The Trump administration signed a peace deal with the Taliban in February 2020 that called for a full withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of April. However, commanders in the field have indicated that the group responsible for supporting the al Qaeda terrorists who committed the 9/11 attacks on the United States had not broken ties with the terrorist group or worked to reduce violence in the country. The Taliban has, however, refrained from attacking U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, and the U.S. has suffered no combat casualties since the Doha Agreement was inked.
PRESSURE MOUNTS FOR AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL DECISION AS NATO LEADERS CONVENE
“It’s going to be hard to meet the May 1 deadline in terms of tactical reasons to get those troops out,” Biden said during his first White House press conference.
“If we leave, we’re going to do so in a safe and orderly way,” he added, noting that he was awaiting another update from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who visited Kabul on Sunday. “It is not my intention to stay there a long time.”
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When pressed on if he could envision U.S. troops in Afghanistan next year, Biden said he could not.
“I can’t picture that being the case,” he said. “We will leave. The question is when we leave.”
