Doubts swirl on US forces' Afghan exit

During Kabul visit, Pentagon chief talks of 'responsible end' to war as deadline nears

KABUL, Afghanistan - US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Sunday just weeks before Washington is due to withdraw the last of its troops under a deal struck with the Taliban last year.

New US President Joe Biden said last week the May 1 deadline agreed by his predecessor Donald Trump would be "tough" to meet-prompting outrage from the insurgents, who warned that Washington would be "responsible for the consequences".

After talks with President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday, Austin would not be drawn for comment on the deadline. "That's the domain of my boss," he told reporters.

"That's the... decision that the (US) president will make at some point in time, in terms of how he wants to approach this going forward."

He said his stop in Kabul was intended to let him "listen and learn "and "inform my participation" in reviewing the future of the US forces.

Austin, who arrived after a visit to India, said: "I think there's a lot of energy focused on, you know, doing what's necessary to bring about a responsible end, a negotiated settlement to the war."

The Taliban on Friday, at a news conference in Moscow, warned of consequences if the United States doesn't meet the deadline. Suhail Shaheen, a member of the Taliban negotiation team for a meeting with senior Afghan government negotiators and international observers to try to jump-start a stalled peace process, told reporters that if US troops were to stay beyond May 1, "it will be a kind of violation of the agreement. That violation would not be from our side. ... Their violation will have a reaction".

A broader conference is now scheduled to be hosted by Turkey next month.

A statement released by the Afghan presidential palace on the Ghani-Austin meeting said both sides condemned the increase in violence in Afghanistan. There was no mention of the May 1 deadline. Washington is reviewing the agreement the Trump administration signed with the Taliban last year and has been stepping up pressure on both sides in the protracted conflict to find a swift route to a peace agreement.

The last stop

Kabul was the last stop on a whirlwind tour of Asia for the new Pentagon chief, a former career soldier who served in Afghanistan as a division commander from September 2003 to August 2005.

Details of Austin's visit were kept under wraps for security reason until after he left.

His visit came as the US is trying to inject fresh impetus into a peace process that has dragged on in Doha since September, with feuding parties unable even to agree on an agenda.

Washington has given both the Taliban and the Afghan government an eight-page peace proposal that both sides are reviewing. It calls for an interim "peace government" which would shepherd Afghanistan toward constitutional reform and elections.

Agencies - Xinhua