Afghanistan’s interior minister Masoud Andarabi said that Afghan security forces can stand their ground even if US troops withdraw. The comment came as a reaction to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s warning issued in a sharply worded letter to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani last weekend.
“The Afghan security forces are fully capable of defending the capital and the cities and the territories that we are present right now. We think the Afghan security forces this year have proven to the Taliban that they will not be able to gain territory.” Andarabi said.
The Taliban have not attacked US or NATO forces as a condition of the deal but at the same time, the Afghan National Security forces have faced some blistering assaults. Andarbani was interviewed at the heavily fortified Interior Ministry and also repeated his government’s warning against a hasty US retreat from the war-ravaged country.
