The United States should reconsider withdrawing troops from Afghanistan by May 1, Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Robert Menendez told reporters.
In a letter leaked earlier this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that the US is considering whether to withdraw troops by May 1. Blinken said the US has not ruled out any options to establish peace between Kabul and the Taliban.
“I’m very concerned about the viability of the peace process in Afghanistan. The Taliban is clearly not abiding by all of its commitments,” the Democratic senator said on Tuesday as quoted by Vox. “We may have to reconsider the May 1 deadline from the agreement that we had because the Taliban are simply violating it.”
President Joe Biden’s team has not made the final decision yet whether to fulfill former President Donald Trump’s deal with the Taliban and withdraw all remaining 2,500 US troops by May 1.
The deal with the Taliban was made in February 2020 under Trump and provisioned two important parts: the Islamist group must put an end to violent actions against Afghan citizens and cut all ties with al-Qaeda (a terrorist group outlawed in Russia). At the moment, the Taliban is the most formidable armed group fighting both the US and the Afghan government.