Germany paved the way for its troops to stay in Afghanistan beyond an April 30 deadline that the United States last year agreed with the Taliban for the withdrawal of U.S. forces after nearly two decades of war, Reuters reported.
According to Reuters lawmakers approved late on Thursday a new mandate which allows the German military to keep up to 1,300 troops in Afghanistan as part of a NATO mission until Jan 31, 2022.
The current parliamentary mandate for the German operation expires at the end of March. The new U.S. government is still reviewing the 2020 agreement with the Taliban so it is not yet clear whether or for how long NATO troops will stay.
At the same time, Washington is pressing for a peace deal to end fighting between the government in Kabul and the Taliban. Talks between the Afghan sides in Qatar have stalled.
The German government has warned that a premature withdrawal of NATO troops could jeopardize those peace talks, adding that NATO troops would need to prepare for Taliban violence if they stay beyond the end of April.
Meanwhile, according to Reuters another report U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday at the first formal White House news conference of his presidency said that it would be “hard” to withdraw the last U.S. troops from Afghanistan by a May 1 deadline, but he added that he did not think they still would be there next year.
During the news conference Biden said it would be hard to meet the May 1 deadline to withdraw the last 3,500 U.S. troops “just in terms of tactical reasons.”
He apparently was referring to the enormous logistical challenges of pulling out the roughly 10,000 American and foreign troops and their equipment within the next six weeks.
Biden was asked if it was possible that there still would be U.S troops in Afghanistan next year. “I can’t picture that being the case,” he responded.
The Taliban have indicated they could resume attacks on foreign troops if Biden does not meet the May 1 deadline.
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