Esper wants to cut US troops 'with or without' Afghan peace deal
By LIU XUAN | China Daily | Updated: 2019-12-18 09:12
United States Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Monday he intends to reduce the number of US troops in Afghanistan "with or without" a peace agreement.
US President Donald Trump is expected to announce plans to withdraw part of the troops from Afghanistan, media reported, after peace talks resumed a week ago between the United States and the Taliban.
It is reported that the US will withdraw around 4,000 troops from Afghanistan, from the current estimated 12,000 to 8,600.
Esper said on Monday that Austin Miller, head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization mission and US Forces Afghanistan, "is confident that he can go down to a lower number" of troops.
Miller said he believed that he could "conduct all the important counterterrorism missions and train, advise and assist" the Afghan army, Esper said.
Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator and a close confidant to Trump, also said the US president may announce the drawdown before the year's end, and it would likely begin next year.
"If Trump decides in the next few weeks to reduce our forces below the 12,000 we have, I could support that," he said in Kabul, suggesting that the official announcement might not be as imminent as was suggested in the press.
The senator said the withdrawal must be "condition-based" and that the Taliban must keep the promises they've made during talks.
The Taliban have said any peace agreement must include getting all US troops out of the country, The Associated Press reported.
Li Wei, a researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said the withdrawal is Washington's fixed objective in the area and also reflects Washington's "contraction" in its anti-terrorism war as well.
"The US has been scheduling the drawdown for a long time," he said. "The action was reported to be part of an agreement the US and the Taliban want to achieve."
As the two sides are willing to resume the negotiation, Li said the withdrawal could be a positive signal from the US.
Esper also added that the best solution for Afghanistan is "a political agreement" between the government and the Taliban.
"But I think we can go down with or without that political agreement."
AP and AFP contributed to this story.
