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Trump Condemns Biden's Delay in Ending Afghan War to 9/11

© REUTERS / Bob StrongFILE PHOTO: U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan
FILE PHOTO: U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan - Sputnik International, 1920, 18.04.2021
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Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed the peace agreement with the Afghan Taliban on behalf of the Trump administration on 29 February 2020. But new President Joe Biden has already broken the terms of the deal by delaying the US troop pullout until 11 September, the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks that prompted the US invasion.

Former US President Donald Trump has laid into his successor Joe Biden's delay in withdrawing troops from Afghanistan to 11 September 2021.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the property tycoon laid out his reasons why postponing the pullout was a mistake.

"First, we can and should get out earlier. Nineteen years is enough, in fact, far too much and way too long", Trump said.

"I made early withdraw possible by already pulling much of our billions of dollars of equipment out and, more importantly, reducing our military presence to less than 2,000 troops from the 16,000 level that was there", he stressed.

​Native New Yorker Trump also objected to Biden conflating the solemn 20th anniversary of the World Trade Centre suicide airliner attacks by Saudi al-Qaeda terrorists with the "wonderful and positive" peace deal.

"September 11th represents a very sad event and period for our country and should remain a day of reflection and remembrance honoring those great souls we lost. Getting out of Afghanistan is a wonderful and positive thing to do", he said.

Trump also criticised his successor for reneging on the peace treaty his own administration agreed upon with the Taliban, under which all US forces were meant to leave the country by May 1st of this year.

"I planned to withdraw on May 1st, and we should keep as close to that schedule as possible", he insisted.

U.S. Army soldiers return home from a 9-month deployment to Afghanistan on December 10, 2020 at Fort Drum, New York.  - Sputnik International, 1920, 18.04.2021
US Won't Take 'Eye Off Ball' on Afghan Situation as Worries About Troop Pull-out Mount
Biden claimed at his belated first press conference as president in March that sticking to the 1 May deadline would be "tough" — even as new Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin focuses on purging right-wingers from the military.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Friday that the US might actually deploy more forces to Afghanistan ahead of the delayed pullout, while a senior government official told the media that Washington will maintain enough "military and intelligence capabilities" in and around the country to strike at the al-Qaeda* terrorist group if it re-emerges.

But the Taliban has warned it will cease to observe the ceasefire and resume attacks on foreign troops if they stay beyond 1 May.

*Al-Qaeda is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.

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