US drawdown from Afghanistan won't bring war to an end: Ex CIA Director

The former US top spy, who led the US and allied forces in the region for years, has warned that America's longest war in Afghanistan is not going to end despite the September 11 pullout.

In an interview with France 24 on Tuesday, Gen. David Petraeus said President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw US troops from the war-torn country by September will neither end the war nor stop American meddling in the country.  

"This is not going to end the endless war in Afghanistan," the US veteran said, claiming that the military exit would only end American "involvement in that war militarily."

Petraeus expressed fear that the possible resurgence of militant groups in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, the rugged mountainous area occupied by insurgents, would make Washington "regret the pullout."

"I do fear that two to three years from now we are going to look back and regret the decision to withdraw," the former top US commander in Afghanistan stated.

Petraeus said pulling US troops out of Afghanistan will also "reduce Washington's prowess to coerce and pressure the Afghan leaders", obliquely pointing to the US political meddling in the landlocked country.

"One of the real challenges of Afghanistan has always been that you cannot truly pressure the leaders of these groups the way you would [militarily] if their headquarters were inside the country," he noted.

In a seperate development, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) has warned Biden that “a hasty total withdrawal from Afghanistan” will “leave coalition partners and vulnerable Afghans high and dry.”

In contrast, the former US President Donald Trump, whose adminstration had earlier signed a deal with the Taliban that stipulated May 1 as the withdrawal deadline for US troops, has endorsed his successor's decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan.

"Getting out of Afghanistan is a wonderful and positive thing to do," Trump said in a statement on Sunday, adding that the pullout plan was his idea and urging Biden to act according to the US deal with the Taliban.

"I planned to withdraw on May 1st, and we should keep as close to that schedule as possible," he insisted.

The Taliban have blamed Washington for “shamefully” breaching its agreement with the group on the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, threatening to drive out US troops from the country by force.

"The US shamefully breached‎ the agreement on troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Americans have failed to adhere to their commitments," Taliban spokesman Mohammed Naeem Wardak told Press TV on April 15.

The spokesman warned that the US forces would be "thrown out of the country".

"Afghans have been engaged in jihad against the occupiers and defending themselves against foreign forces for 20 years," he said. "We have been fighting to make our country independent. We want to have an independent establishment to protect our people."

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