WASHINGTON: The United States will maintain around 10,000 troops in Afghanistan through this year but by the end of 2016 it would get down to a Kabul-centred, embassy-focused presence, says a senior US official.

US Deputy Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken also told a conference in Washington that the United States could not be the guarantor of Afghan security in perpetuity.

The moderator of the conference, organised jointly by The Washington Post and the Centre for New American Security, however, asked Mr Blinken if the Obama administration would reconsider its deadline for withdrawing all American troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2016.

The threats that forced the United States to stay engaged in the Pak-Afghan region for more than 13 years were still there, the moderator added.

“We are going to remain committed to the country no matter what,” said Mr Blinked while outlining the US policy for Afghanistan. “We’re going to have to have in place, as we plan to do now, the ability to continue to prosecute counter- terrorism missions for our own security and that of our partners, the Afghans.”

The United States, he said, would also like to maintain the capacity to support and train Afghan security forces.

“But the President (Obama) has been very clear that even as we stay at around 10,000 forces through this year, by the end of 2016 we want to get down to a Kabul-centred, embassy-focused presence and whatever goes along with that in terms of the security requirement,” Mr Blinken said.

“We cannot and we should not be the guarantor of Afghan security in perpetuity,” said the US official while explaining the rationale for this approach. “And the Afghans deserve to know what’s expected of them and when it’s expected.”

He said the United States wanted the Afghans to have the ability to galvanise and energise their own commitment to look out for their own security and to take the steps necessary with a strong support of the US and its partners.

Mr Blinken said the political transition that happened in Afghanistan in September last year could not have happened without an active US support.

“We have helped competing Afghan political blocs avoid civil war and achieve the first-ever peaceful, democratic political transition in that country’s history,” he said.

Mr Blinken pointed out that Secretary of State John Kerry had an “extraordinary personal engagement” in enabling the new political set-up in Afghanistan that led to a ruling arrangement between President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.

Mr Blinken said that when the first deadline for withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan ended in December 2014, President Obama adjusted his approach and showed some flexibility in extending the deadline.

“But at the end of the day, in place after place, including Afghanistan, ultimately people have to be willing to stand and fight for their own countries – with our support, with our assistance, with our best advice, but they need to take the lead, to take the responsibility,” he said.

Mr Blinken said the United States was being very clear about what it expected the Afghans to do: “get them to stand up and do just that.”

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2015

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