US official warns Congress on troop withdrawal from Afghanistan

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A top United States official working on Afghanistan has warned Congress that a withdrawal of US troops from the country without a peace agreement between the Afghan government and the Taliban would be “a disaster”.

John Sopko, the US Department of Defense’s special inspector for Afghanistan reconstruction, told a House of Representatives committee on Tuesday that without US military and financial support, the Afghan government in Kabul could face collapse.

“The Afghan government would probably lose the capability of flying any of its aircraft within a few months and, to be quite blunt, would probably face collapse,” he said.

His warning comes days before another round of peace talks is set to take place between the Taliban and the government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani – and only weeks before a May 1 deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from the country.

The US’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, will attend the conference in Moscow on March 18, while the Taliban said it plans to send a 10-person, high-level delegation led by chief negotiator Mullah Baradar Akhund.

Under a February 2020 deal reached between the Taliban and the administration of former US President Donald Trump, all foreign troops are set to be withdrawn from the country by May 1.

There are presently about 3,500 US troops and 10,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan.

“Because of the pre-existing agreement between the Trump administration and the Taliban, [the Biden administration has] to decide whether they pull the plug on May 1,” Representative Stephen Lynch, a Democrat, said during Tuesday’s hearing.

“Tell me what to expect if the administration indeed pulls the remaining troops out,” Lynch asked Sopko.

Sopko said the Taliban has attacked Afghan soldiers and police in regions of the country the group wants to control, in order to gain leverage in ongoing negotiations with the Afghan government. “That will continue,” he said.

At the same time, corruption within the Afghan government remains a major problem and serves to fuel claims by the Taliban to political legitimacy, the inspector general said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has outlined plans for talks between Afghan parties and the Taliban on a transitional government.

A Taliban spokesman has expressed scepticism over the US proposal, however, saying transitional governments have proven ineffective and that the group’s vision for the country revolved around a strong central administration capable of enforcing its definition of an Islamic system of governance.

Muhammad Naim, a Taliban spokesman, told Al Jazeera that the group did not believe an interim government could deal with the country’s challenges.

“Transitional governments were formed after the American occupation, some of them transitional, others participatory, but none of them have solved the country’s problems,” Naim said.

Sopko’s remarks came in an appearance before a House Government Oversight subcommittee during which both Democrats and Republicans expressed frustration with the US’s long and costly occupation of Afghanistan.

“We’re lighting money on fire,” said Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

The US has spent $143bn on reconstruction in Afghanistan since 2002, including $88bn for training and support for the Afghan army. The Western-back government in Kabul relies for as much as 80 percent of its annual funding on aid from the US and other nations, Sopko said.

“Afghan security forces are nowhere near achieving self-sufficiency, as they cannot maintain their equipment, manage their supply chains or train new soldiers, pilots and policemen” without outside funding, Sopko said.

Last month, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin called for a reduction in violence in Afghanistan and said more progress was needed in Afghan peace negotiations before Western forces withdraw from the war-torn country.

“Clearly, the violence is too high right now and more progress needs to be to be made in the Afghan-led negotiations,” Austin said on February 19.

美国官员警告国会从阿富汗撤军

一位在阿富汗工作的美国高级官员警告国会，如果阿富汗政府与塔利班之间没有达成和平协议，从该国撤军将是“一场灾难”。

美国国防部阿富汗重建特别检查员约翰·索普科周二对众议院委员会说，如果没有美国的军事和财政支持，阿富汗喀布尔政府可能面临崩溃。

他说：“阿富汗政府可能会在几个月内失去其任何飞机的飞行能力，直言不讳，很可能会面临崩溃。”

他的警告是在塔利班与阿富汗总统阿什拉夫·加尼（Ashraf Ghani）政府之间将举行新一轮和平谈判的几天前–距5月1日美军撤离阿富汗的最后期限只有数周。

美国驻阿富汗特使扎尔迈·哈利勒扎德（Zalmay Khalilzad）将参加3月18日在莫斯科举行的会议，而塔利班则表示计划派遣由首席谈判代表穆拉·巴拉达·阿洪德（Mullah Baradar Akhund）率领的10人高级别代表团。

根据塔利班与美国前总统唐纳德·特朗普政府之间达成的2020年2月协议，所有外国部队都将在5月1日前撤离该国。

目前在阿富汗大约有3500名美军和10,000名北约部队。

民主党代表斯蒂芬·林奇（Stephen Lynch）在周二的听证会上说：“由于特朗普政府与塔利班之间已经达成协议，拜登政府必须决定是否在5月1日取消这一措施。”

林奇问索普科：“告诉我，如果政府确实撤出了剩余的部队，那会有什么期望。”

索普科说，塔利班袭击了该组织想要控制的该国地区的阿富汗士兵和警察，以便在与阿富汗政府进行的持续谈判中获得影响。他说：“这将继续下去。”