- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Foreign
troops may remain in Afghanistan indefinitely even as Afghan forces take
on growing security responsibilities, U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay
Khalilzad said on Tuesday.
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- Khalilzad likened this possibility to the continued presence
of U.S. troops in Europe and East Asia. He suggested Afghans, still bitter
at their abandonment by Washington after the decade-long Soviet occupation
ended in 1989, might welcome such a presence.
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- An 18,000-strong U.S.-led force in Afghanistan is still
hunting for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the Sept. 11,
2001 attacks, and for remnants of the Taliban regime Washington toppled
in late 2001. In addition, some 8,500 NATO-led peace-keeping troops provide
security mainly in Kabul.
-
-
- "The question is ... whether there will be some
... residual force staying there for the long term in terms of security
relations with Afghanistan," he told reporters. "That's being
looked at."
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- "There may be, either in a NATO context (or) in
a bilateral context, some residual presence indefinitely," Khalilzad
said.
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- "(They) still love us there," he added, saying
U.S. forces have an approval rating of more than 70 percent among Afghans,
higher than that of the government led by newly inaugurated Afghan President
Hamid Karzai.
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- "The only fear they have about the United States
is a fear of abandonment," he added. "That we will not stay the
course indefinitely, that we will do as we did after the Soviet departure
and will say 'The Soviets have gone. Thank you very much ... we'll see
you.' That's what their fear is."
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- http://news.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7153527
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