US Lawmaker Calls to Rethink Troop Pullout

US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez said on Tuesday that the May 1st deadline for withdrawing US forces from Afghanistan may have to be reconsidered because the Taliban are not meeting their commitments under a 2020 peace deal, Reuters reported.

“I’m very concerned about the viability of the peace process in Afghanistan,” Menendez said on a call with reporters, adding that he believes the Taliban is “clearly not abiding” by all of its commitments made.

The new US administration of President Joe Biden wants to revive stalled peace talks before May 1st, when the last 2,500 US troops must leave Afghanistan under the Feb. 29, 2020, deal struck between the Taliban and the former Trump administration.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week proposed in a letter to Afghan leaders that a senior-level meeting take place “in the coming weeks” in Turkey.

Menendez became chairman of the influential foreign relations panel after Biden’s Democrats took control of the Senate in January.

He said that if intelligence reports showed that the Taliban was falling short, the deadline would have to be rethought.

“If the Taliban are confirmed as not meeting their commitments, which I personally believe they’re not, then we may have to reconsider the May 1 deadline,” Menendez said.

The proposed UN-led conference on Afghan peace in Turkey may take place on March 27, sources close to the Taliban told TOLOnews on Wednesday.

US sources so far have not confirmed that the meeting will be held on March 27.

The Afghan government also has not commented on the Turkey conference.

Turkey is ready to take part in mediation efforts for peace in Afghanistan and the region, the country’s ruling party spokesman said Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reported.

“Afghanistan is a very important country for us,” Omer Celik, spokesman for the Justice and Development (AK) Party, told reporters in the capital Ankara after a meeting of the party’s Central Executive Board, according to Anadolu news agency’s report.

To a question about ongoing intra-Afghan peace talks, Celik said: “Turkey is ready to be involved in all kinds of mediation efforts for peace in Afghanistan and the region.”