MONITORING (SW) – The vast majority of Senate Republicans rebuked President Trump’s rationale for withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan, voting to declare that the Islamic State’s presence and activity in both countries continue to pose a serious threat to the United States.
The 68-23 vote on Thursday came on a procedural matter clearing the way for an amendment on Syria and Afghanistan troop levels by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Senate's top Republican.
Thursday's vote serves notice to the White House that senior Republican leaders want a reversal of Trump's order to withdraw US special forces from Syria and a check on future plans to withdraw troops in Afghanistan.
"I think the president is slowing down in Syria and he is taking the opportunity to see if we can get a new structure in Afghanistan, if we can get a peace agreement," Senior Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, told Al Jazeera. The resolution calls on the Trump administration to "conduct a review of the military and diplomatic strategies in Syria and Afghanistan" and to "set conditions" for the long-term defeat of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.
Trump had also ordered the military to come up with plans to withdraw about 7,000 or up to half of the US troops in Afghanistan. After six days of talks in Qatar last week, US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said theUnited States and the Taliban had reportedly reached a rough framework for peace talks between the US-backed government in Kabul and the Taliban.
According to the AJ, major hurdles remain, however, including terms on a ceasefire and the withdrawal of foreign forces. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said in a televised address on January 28 that all foreign forces would eventually leave Afghanistan once they were no longer needed.
The resolution voted by the Senate on Thursday specifically acknowledged "progress made by" Khalilzad and offered support for diplomatic efforts.
The non-binding amendment would encourage Congress and the White House to work together to develop long-term strategies in Afghanistan and Syria. It also says that a hasty withdrawal in both countries could "allow terrorists to regroup, destabilise critical regions and create vacuums that could be filled by Iran or Russia".
The fighting is taking a toll on Afghan civilians. More than 2,798 Afghan civilians were killed, and 5,252 wounded in the first nine months of 2018, according to United Nations figures cited by the US special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction in its latest quarterly report on January 30.
The US has spent $132bn in Afghanistan since 2001, according to the report, which said: "Afghanistan has made progress, but the results are mixed, and the outlook is still sobering."
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