Afghanistan Wants Partnership with U.S. Military Even as Relationship, Conditions Evolve by John Grady – USNI News
Kabul’s ambassador to Washington said “passing statements” about U.S. withdrawal or peace talks with the Taliban made in American political campaigns are “not helpful” in setting Afghanistan on the pathway to a future as functioning democratic republic.
Speaking Wednesday at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C., Roya Rahmani said in answer to several questions, “we want the United States to look at us … as partners over the last 18 years.”
The major change: “now it is not the Americans fighting” the Taliban or the Islamic State in Afghanistan, she said. Rather, the Afghan security forces are in the lead militarily, as part of a strategy developed several years ago in coordination the United States and NATO.
“We could talk about this as a success story.” The ambassador added Afghanistan “is an important part of your foreign policy. We have a rapidly changing environment” inside Afghanistan that includes shifting mindsets over the role of women in society.
Rahmani was speaking against the backdrop of the sudden announcement of the American withdrawal of forces from northeast Syria, where they had been working alongside the Syrian Democratic Front against the Islamic State. That sudden withdrawal raised new questions about U.S. commitment to stay in Afghanistan…