Ex-Afghan President Karzai opposes longer US presence in Afghanistan
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has expressed his strong opposition to the planned presence of thousands of US troops in Afghanistan past 2016, Press TV reports.
Karzai said on Saturday that the delay in withdrawal of US forces would only prolong the conflict in his country and culminate in more civilian deaths.
He made the remarks after US President Barack Obama announced on October 15 that Washington wound keep 5,500 of US troops in Afghanistan when he leaves office in 2017.
Obama had originally planned to pull out almost all the US troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year. The US administration only planned to keep a small, embassy-based military presence in Afghanistan.
However, the Pentagon has been arguing for months that Kabul needed additional US military presence in order to defeat the Taliban militants.
The United States should deploy more troops to Afghanistan because local forces are not yet ready to take on the Taliban, US Army General John Campbell has said.
Campbell, the commander in charge of the US-led military coalition in Afghanistan, made the remarks during a hearing before a US Senate panel last week.
Karzai is known for his opposition to US policies in Afghanistan. He refused to sign the so-called Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with Washington that allowed the presence of the US soldiers in the country beyond 2014 when he was in office, saying the terms of the agreement undermined Kabul’s authority in managing domestic security affairs.
The agreement granted immunity to US-led troops operating in the country. It also allowed the US-led forces to carry out deadly overnight raids on Afghan homes, which triggered widespread protests in Afghanistan.
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