Biden Admin Ditches May Obligation to Withdraw Troops from Afghanistan

The US reached an agreement with the Taliban in February last year on the withdrawal of 12,000 US troops from Afghanistan in exchange for the Taliban’s halting of their attacks on American forces.

According to Press TV, under the deal, the former President Donald Trump’s administration promised to bring the number of US terrorist forces in Afghanistan to zero by May 2021.

"The Taliban have not met their commitments. They are not meeting their commitments and as long as they are not meeting their commitments, it is going to be difficult for anybody at that negotiating table to meet their commitments,” Pentagon Spokesperson John Kirby said at a news briefing.

"... it's very hard to see a specific way forward for the negotiated settlement. I don't think it is helpful to be drawn now into specific hypothetical discussions about troop numbers on a specific calendar basis,” he added.

Kirby also said no decision had been made by the Biden administration about future troop levels in Afghanistan.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had hinted at a review of the withdrawal plan.

He told reporters on Wednesday that he was working to understand "exactly what is in the agreements that were reached between the United States and the Taliban to make sure that we fully understand the commitments that the Taliban has made as well as any commitments that we've made."

Blinken called Afghanistan "a real challenge" during his confirmation hearing last week.