The troops withdrawal is a part of the peace pact the United States inked with the Taliban in February. The armed group, in return, has pledged not to allow the country become a safe haven for terrorism.
The price for a “too soon” withdrawal of U.S. and allied troops from the south-Asian country could be “very high”, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has warned in a statement following the reports that said the U.S. President Trump might settle for a partial reduction of forces in Afghanistan by January, before leaving the White House.
“We now face a difficult decision. We have been in Afghanistan for almost 20 years, and no NATO ally wants to stay any longer than necessary. But at the same time, the price for leaving too soon or in an uncoordinated way could be very high,” SG Stoltenberg said in a statement.
The alert follows the reports that said the U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to order the country’s military to pull thousands of troops out of Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia by January.
According to reports as citing officials, the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan would be reduced from the current count—4,500 troops—to half.
Earlier on October, the U.S. President Donald Trump announced in a tweet just weeks ahead of U.S. presidential elections, that he wanted a “small remaining number” of his troops “serving in Afghanistan” to return home by Christmas.
But his former Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, had sent a classified memo to the White House, voicing concerns about accelerating the troop drawdown in Afghanistan.
Conditions on the ground were not yet right, Mr. Esper is said to have written in the reminder.
His letter was believed to be one of the reasons he was fired by President Trump.
The news of troops pullout has been hitting headlines as the country gripped with decades-long war is still witnessing high levels of violence amid peace efforts negotiators from the government and the Taliban are putting in the Qatari capital of Doha.
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