All US forces may exit Afghanistan within months

KABUL ahead of schedule, CNN reports.

Discussions on the sensitive issue were partly triggered by concerns that President Donald Trump could withdraw military personnel before elections in order to honour his 2016 campaign promise.

The US leader has already indicated his interest in pulling American soldiers out of Afghanistan before the timeline pledged in a February 29 peace deal with the Taliban, the media outlet said.

Pentagon officials are expected to brief Trump on several options to withdraw all American service members from Afghanistan, several sources were quoted as saying.

“One of the options includes a complete withdrawal before the 2020 US presidential election in November,” said a New York-based news website.

But officials indicated they could advise Trump not to reduce America’s footprint in Afghanistan too soon, Business Insider reported.

On Tuesday, The New York Times reported Trump could be presented soon with multiple force pullout options, with different timelines.

Other plans envisage keeping 5,000 or 1,500 US soldiers in the conflict-torn country, according to The Wall Street Journal

“The prospect of pulling US forces by November would mark a shift from the vague peace agreement between representatives of a fraction of the Taliban’s many factions and the US,” the report added.

Previously, Washington suggested drawing down 3,400 troops by July and all forces by May 2021, depending on the ground situation, including Taliban’s honouring of the pledge to sever ties with terrorist groups.

PAN Monitor/mud

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