White House: drawdown will continue despite difficulties

WASHINGTON, DC (PAN remains challenging, the White House has said.

“The situation continues to be a tough one and fighting continues to occur. But we believe we’ve made significant progress in implementing the policy proposal that the President put forward,” the White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, said.

“We are now in the process of implementing the drawdown, as he made clear in his address not long ago, in drawing down the surge forces beginning now,” he said, adding that the Obama Administration believes very strongly that the US is in a position where it can begin to draw down those forces.

Meanwhile Defense Secretary Leon Panetta met his British counterpart, Liam Fox. The current situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan was central to their discussion.

The meeting lasted for one hour, during which they reviewed a range of regional and global issues of national security importance to both nations, Pentagon spokesman Doug Wilson said.

The two defense leaders shared views on budget challenges, political and military challenges in Libya, Afghanistan (including training of and transition to Afghan national security forces), Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, and Iran, focusing on Iranian involvement in rising violence in Iraq and the threat posed by Iran’s potential to develop nuclear weapons, Wilson said. 

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