Blinken visits Kabul to sell troop pullout

KABUL－US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Thursday to sell Afghan leaders and a wary public on Washington's decision to withdraw all US troops from the country and end its longest war.

Blinken sought to assure senior Afghan politicians the United States remains committed to the country despite US President Joe Biden's announcement a day earlier that the 2,500 US soldiers remaining in the country would be coming home by the 20th anniversary of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks that led to the US invasion in 2001.

"I wanted to demonstrate with my visit the ongoing commitment of the United States to the Islamic Republic and the people of Afghanistan," Blinken told Afghan President Ashraf Ghani as they met at the presidential palace in Kabul. "The partnership is changing, but the partnership itself is enduring."

"We respect the decision and are adjusting our priorities," Ghani told Blinken.

Later, in a meeting with Abdullah Abdullah, who heads the National Reconciliation Council, Blinken repeated his message, saying "we have a new chapter, but it is a new chapter that we're writing together".

NATO immediately followed Biden's lead on Wednesday, saying its roughly 7,000 non-US forces there would be departing within a few months, ending the foreign military presence that had been a fact of life for a generation of Afghans reeling from more than 40 years of conflict.

Blinken arrived in the Afghan capital from Brussels, where he and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin briefed NATO officials on the US decision and won quick approval from the allies to end their Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan.

Biden, Blinken, and Austin have all tried to put a brave face on the pullout, maintaining the US-and NATO-led missions to Afghanistan had achieved their goal of decimating Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network that launched the 9/11 attacks and clearing the country of terrorist elements that could use Afghan soil to plot similar strikes.

That argument has faced pushback from some US lawmakers and human rights advocates, who say the withdrawal will result in the loss of freedoms Afghans enjoyed after the Taliban was ousted from power in late 2001.

More than half of Afghanistan's 36 million people live on less than $1.90 a day, according to World Bank figures, 20 years since the US invasion.

Peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government are at a stalemate but are supposed to resume later this month in Istanbul, though the Taliban have not said if they will participate.

'International recognition'

Blinken had stern warnings for the religious militia, saying it would never gain the "international recognition" it wants if it drives Afghanistan toward a civil war rather than embracing the peace talks.

"It's important for the Taliban to recognize that it will never be legitimate and it will never be durable if it rejects the political process and tries to take the country by force," he said.

Under a deal signed between then-president Donald Trump's administration and the Taliban last year, the US was to have completed its military withdrawal by May 1.

The Taliban's spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahed, warned on Wednesday "problems will be compounded" if the US misses the May 1 withdrawal deadline. The insurgent movement has yet to respond to Biden's surprise announcement the pullout would only start on that date.

Already, violence and seemingly random attacks on civilians have surged since Trump's administration reached the deal with the Taliban.

Across Afghanistan, more than 1,700 civilians were killed or wounded in attacks the first three months of 2021, up 23 percent from the same period last year, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

Agencies - Xinhua