President Donald Trump has stated that he hopes that all U.S. troops will leave Afghanistan before Christmas, a deadline much earlier than the deadline proposed by his administration earlier that day.
“We should have the small remaining number of our BRAVE Men and Women serving in Afghanistan home by Christmas!” Trump wrote on Twitter late Wednesday.
The Taliban welcomed this announcement, calling it a “positive step” in implementing the February 29 agreement with the United States, which will enable all foreign forces to leave Afghanistan by May 2021.
In return, the Taliban promised not to allow Al Qaeda and other transnational extremist organizations to use Afghanistan-the original cause of the US invasion in 2001.
The Taliban said in a statement that they are “committed to the agreement and hope to establish positive relations with all countries, including the United States.”
After fierce uproar from the United States, the Afghan government and the Taliban held peace talks in Doha last month, despite the slow progress of the talks.
Trump’s pledge was held less than a month before the US election. Before the U.S. election, the president tried to show in opinion polls that he was fulfilling his promise to end the “unending war” in the United States.
After 19 years of US military operations, his position has received widespread domestic support, including his Democratic competitor Joe Biden, who worked to reduce US involvement in Afghanistan during his tenure as vice president.
Asked last month whether he backed Trump´s plans to withdraw troops from both Afghanistan and Iraq, Biden said: “Yes, I do. As long as he has a plan to figure out how he’s going to deal with Daesh,” he said of the ultra-violent movement that has been active in both countries.
