The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is easier than in Syria – Asian affairs expert

Washington DC – North-Press Agency

Hadeel Oueiss

The political and economic analyst for Southeast Asian affairs, Mir Mohammad Alikhan, has linked the possibility of the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan to the Afghan government's implementation of its commitments to release the Taliban detainees.

Mir Mohammad Alikhan told North-Press that the final U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is not impossible, linking the possibility of the withdrawal to the commitment of the government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to release 5,000 prisoners of Taliban.

Alikhan pointed out the uselessness of the U.S. war in Afghanistan, due to the losses of the United States for 18 years, and the costs that amounted to $1 trillion, in addition to the large numbers of troops that continued to lose in Afghanistan.

The Southeast Asian affairs expert pointed out that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is easier than in Syria, as there is no victory that the United States can achieve in Afghanistan, as well as there is no competition for it, as it the case in Syria; therefore, there is no Turkish, Russian, or Iranian influence that could pose fears for the U.S., no oil resources for Washington to fear the control of its enemies over them, and no borders with Israel in Afghanistan to make the United States worried about the arrival of warfare if it withdraws.

Alikhan believes that the U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to fulfil his electoral promise to return a large number of the U.S. troops, as he tried to do in Syria, pointing out that the situation in Afghanistan differs from Syria. He expects Trump to take more withdrawal steps if he wins the election, saying: "it is a path which other U.S. presidents will follow in the future.”

Colonel Sony Legit, the spokesman for the U.S. forces in Afghanistan has announced yesterday on Monday, that the United States began withdrawing its forces from the country, a week after the signing of a historic agreement to establish peace in Afghanistan. Col. Sony Legit said: "According to the U.S.-Afghanistan Joint Declaration, the United States has begun reducing the number of its troops in Afghanistan to less than 8,600 soldiers over a period of 135 days.”

The agreement signed between the United States and Taliban was widely criticized, and the possibility of Taliban’s commitment to implement it, in addition to the presence of what observers described as central gaps in the terms of the agreement between the Afghan government and Taliban, particularly those related to its pledge to release Taliban detainees.