Biden will withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021 - The Washington Post

President Biden will withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan over the coming months, people familiar with the plans said, completing the military exit by the 20th anniversary of the Sept.

forces in the country beyond the May 1 exit deadline that the Trump administration negotiated last year with the Taliban, according to one person familiar with the matter, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe plans that are not yet public.

options in Afghanistan, where U.S.-midwived peace talks have failed to advance as hoped and the Taliban remains a potent force despite two decades of effort by the United States to defeat the militants and establish stable, democratic governance.

“This is the immediate, practical reality that our policy review discovered,” the person familiar with the deliberations said.

In addition to major domestic challenges, “the reality is that the United States has big strategic interests in the world,” the person said, “like nonproliferation, like an increasingly aggressive and assertive Russia, like North Korea and Iran, whose nuclear programs pose a threat to the United States,” as well as China.

Biden administration officials say the United States intends to remain closely involved in the peace process and will continue to provide humanitarian aid and assistance to the Afghan government and security forces, which remains almost totally dependent on foreign support.

“What we won’t do is use our troops as a bargaining chip in that process,” the person familiar with the plans said.

The person familiar with the plans said the United States had gone to Afghanistan in 2001 “for a particular purpose: to deliver justice to those who attacked us on September 11th and to disrupt terrorists seeking to use Afghanistan as a safe haven to attack the United States.

The Afghanistan papers: A secret history of the war.

Administration officials were in the process of notifying officials in NATO nations as well as Afghan officials and the Taliban on Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear when NATO countries would withdraw troops but the person familiar with the plans suggested they would coordinate their withdrawals with the U.S.

That led to a February 2020 agreement signed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo under which the United States pledged to withdraw its forces by May 1, 2021, in exchange for Taliban severance of all ties with al-Qaeda, and agreement to begin negotiations with the Afghan government toward a cease-fire and peace accord.

At the same time, the Taliban has increased its attacks on Afghan troops and expanded its territorial control.

Many Afghan experts have concluded that the Taliban are moving closer to a military victory, but that they may be reluctant to take over as a pariah government, which could result in a loss of international support and aid for the country.

He called for a conference of Taliban and Afghan leaders to take place in Turkey this month, and a U.N.-convened meeting of regional governments, including Iran, along with the United States, to push diplomacy.

The person familiar with the administration’s deliberations rejected the suggestion that these apparent failures precipitated Biden’s decision.

The United States, the person said, would continue its diplomatic efforts to bring peace.

The person familiar with the plans said some U.S.

counterterrorism assets would be repositioned outside of Afghanistan, and the United States would remain capable of striking extremist groups there.

The Soviet Union, which occupied Afghanistan for a decade until it abruptly withdrew in 1989, “did it the same way,” Powell said