Washington
No one can offer guarantees about Afghanistan s future after U.S. troops leave, a top White House official said on Sunday, even as he stressed the United States would stay focused on terrorist threats emanating from the country.
President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that the United States will withdraw its remaining 2,500 troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the al Qaeda attacks that triggered America s longest war.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was asked on the Fox News Sunday program about the risk of a repeat of what happened in Iraq, where Islamic State militants seized territory after U.S. troops withdrew in 2011.
That led then-President Barack Obama to send troops back into Iraq. Sullivan said Biden had no intention of sending American forces back to Afghanistan, but he added: “I can t make any guarantees about what will happen inside the country. No one can.”
“All the United States could do is provide the Afghan security forces, the Afghan government and the Afghan people resources and capabilities, training and equipping their forces, providing assistance to their govt.
We have done that and now it is time for American troops to come home and the Afghan people to step up to defend their own country.”—Agencies
