Taliban Biden Promise Biden Pull US Troops From Afghanistan

US President-elect, Joe Biden (Source: Antara)

JAKARTA - The rebel group in Afghanistan, the Taliban asked the government of the United States (US) under Joe Biden to stick to his promise to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan. That promise was made by Biden in February, during a debate between presidential candidates from the Democratic Party.

Quoting Reuters, Tuesday, November 10, the US has withdrawn troops under a deal promised to be completed in May. These rules are subject to certain security guarantees. Meanwhile, the Taliban are holding peace talks with the Afghan government in Doha.

"The Islamic Emirate wants to emphasize to America's new elected president and future governments that the implementation of the agreement is the most sensible and effective means of ending the conflict between our two countries," the militant group said in a statement.

However, violence has increased across the country. The Taliban carried out attacks in the provincial capital. In some cases, it has prompted the US to carry out air strikes because talks in the Qatari capital have been delayed.

Groups such as the United Nations (UN) also raise questions about Alqaeda. A senior UN official said the group was still "deeply tied" to the Taliban.

Taliban troops (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

Meanwhile US President Donald Trump has made ending the war in Afghanistan a major campaign promise. He said in a tweet in October that US troops could leave Afghanistan by Christmas. Nonetheless, officials like his national security adviser say they have to work until May 2021.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has congratulated Joe Biden on his victory. Ghani said that relations between Afghanistan and the US were expected to further improve in the area of counterterrorism and building peace.

"Afghanistan hopes to continue / deepen our multi-layered strategic partnership with the United States - our basic partner - including in counterterrorism & bringing peace to Afghanistan," Ghani said via his official Twitter account.

Afghans also welcomed Joe Biden's victory, but hoped the US president-elect would slow the withdrawal of US troops to allow for a stable peace. In contrast to Trump, who said in a recent statement that he wanted all US troops home.

Biden said throughout his campaign if he was elected, he would maintain a troop presence in Afghanistan to ensure Alqaeda and ISIS did not threaten the United States from the war-torn country, but in small numbers. Biden also opposed continued US involvement in nation-building Afghanistan.

In a February debate among the US Democratic Party's presidential candidates, Biden drew heavy criticism from Afghans for saying that "there was no possibility of unifying" Afghanistan.

The Taliban, however, insist that they want all foreign troops to leave Afghanistan for a long-lasting peace deal between Afghanistan's rivals to entrench that ends the war.