The pace of withdrawal of United States forces from Afghanistan has not been decided yet, even as the Obama Administration is committed to transfer the country's security to Afghan forces, the White House said on Tuesday.
"Contrary to reports that appeared today, there are no options being reviewed with specific troop numbers attached to them. There are no individuals promoting specific options over others. That's just simply false," White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, told reporters.
The US has made it clear for some time now that the pace of the withdrawal of the remaining 68,000 after the surge forces are withdrawn will be decided in consultation with NATO ministers and will have everything to do with the successful implementation of the strategy.
"And that remains the case," Carney said. "The (US) president is committed to drawing down forces, removing American troops from Afghanistan as we transfer security authority to the Afghan forces, and doing that in a way that allows us to achieve our objectives. That has not changed," Carney said in response to a question, adding that there is no specific option being discussed.
"The president's policy is to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan as we transfer security responsibility to Afghan forces. That's the strategy he put into place and that's the strategy he has been implementing," Carney said.
The US, he said, is in the middle of the draw down of the surge forces and by the end of this summer, 33,000 troops will be home.
"He has said that we will continue to remove US forces through -- even beyond the draw down of the surge forces. The pace of that withdrawal has not been decided," he said.
"I think it's important to understand that, in spite of recent events, the strategy is a broad-based strategy that looks at the achievement of our objectives and the fact that this president is committed to ending the war in Afghanistan responsibly, in a way that ensures that we have successfully taken the fight to al-Qaeda, which is the number one primary objective of the strategy," he added.
The US has stabilised Afghanistan so that Afghan security forces can be responsible for the security of their nation and that we can ensure that Afghanistan will not be host to Al Qaeda in the future, Carney said.
