Graham rules out US troop withdrawal by May

KABUL (Pajhwok): American forces will remain in Afghanistan and withdraw only when the conditions are right, says an influential US lawmaker.

“I’m very pleased with what the Biden administration is proposing for Afghanistan. We’re going to keep troops there on a conditions-based approach,” Senator Lindsey Graham said.

“I think we’re not going to leave in May. We’re going to leave when the conditions are right,” the Republican legislator told CBS News

In the interview aired late on Sunday night, he accused the Taliban of cheating and not complying with their last year’s peace agreement with the United States.

He added: “I like what Secretary Blinken and the Biden administration is doing. They’re reevaluating our presence in Afghanistan to keep the footprint low, but not to walk away and lose all the gains we’ve achieved.”

Graham warned if the US forces left Afghanistan without a conditions-based withdrawal, Daesh and Al-Qaeda would come roaring back to the country.

The senator continued Afghan women would suffer immensely and gains of the past 20 years could be frittered away as a result of an early US troop withdrawal.

PAN Monitor/mud