Taliban has said that they want all foreign forces out by May 1st.
This comes after President Joe Biden announced that he is withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan.
President Biden announced Wednesday that the United States would pull its remaining troops from Afghanistan’s “forever war,” claiming that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks 20 years earlier cannot excuse American forces now dying in the country’s longest war.
His plan is to withdraw all American troops, which currently number 2,500, by September 11, the anniversary of the attacks.
“It is time to end America’s longest war,” Biden said while adding that the U.S. will “not conduct a hasty rush to the exit.”
Withdrawing all US troops carries obvious threats. It could bolster the Taliban’s efforts to reclaim authority, undoing decades of progress inequality and women’s rights.
Obama, who wished but eventually failed to bring the war to an end during his presidency, said in a statement that he backed Biden’s decision.
According to several current and former officials, those advisors, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, Commander of US Central Command Gen. Frank McKenzie, and several State Department officials, raised doubts about what a complete withdrawal would mean for the US counter-terrorism program. They were also concerned about the safety of US diplomats stationed there.
Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan was one of the few topics on which some Republicans were willing to disagree with the then-president. GOP lawmakers are once again divided as a result of Biden’s decision.
The Taliban think they have won. Haji Hekmat declares over a cup of green tea, “We have won the war, and America has lost.”
“We are ready for anything,” says Haji Hekmat. “We are totally prepared for peace, and we are fully prepared for jihad.”
There has been an obvious inconsistency in the Taliban’s “jihad” for the past year. Following the signing of a deal with the US, they ceased assaults on foreign powers but continued to operate alongside the Afghan army.
Haji Hekmat defers to the Taliban’s political leadership in Qatar on whether the Taliban will be able to share power with other Afghan political groups. “Whatever they decide, we’ll accept,” he says repeatedly.
