(KHAAMA Press): In a pre-ministerial press conference on Monday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stressed the presence of international troops in Afghanistan as condition-based, he said that NATO will not leave the country before the time is right.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cOur common goal is clear. Afghanistan should never again serve as a haven for terrorists to attack our homelands. So, our presence is conditions-based,\u201d Stoltenberg said. While no ally wants to stay in Afghanistan longer than necessary, we will not leave before the time is right\u201d said Stoltenberg. \u00a0\u201cNATO has significantly adjusted our presence as part of the peace process,\u201d he said. Based on the unacceptably high level of violence in Afghanistan Stoltenberg said, \u201cHowever, peace talks remain fragile and the level of violence remains unacceptably high, including the Taliban attacks on civilians. The Taliban must reduce violence, negotiate in good faith and live up to their commitment to stop cooperating with international terrorist groups,\u201d he added, \u201cNo ally wants to stay in Afghanistan longer than necessary, but the threat of terrorism must be considered,\u201d. Stoltenberg expressed that NATO strongly is in favor of the peace process in Afghanistan and that it is the best opportunity for \u201ca lasting political solution\u201d. Situational assessment on the ground will continue and developments are closely monitored, Stoltenberg indicated that NATO \u201cwill continue to take more measures to ensure the safety of our troops and consider next steps in a deliberate and coordinated way,\u201d he said. Stoltenberg reiterated that NATO\u2019s priority is that Afghanistan does not become a safe haven for terrorists once again. NATO\u2019s main and only priority is that Afghanistan should not be transformed into safe haven for terrorism again and to fight terrorists he added, \u201cWe also realize that one of the best weapons we have in the fight against terrorism is to train local forces,\u201d. Most of the Afghans are concerned over losing the gains the country achieved in the past two decades, Stoltenberg reaffirmed that \u201cI hear the calls from many Afghans on not jeopardizing the gains\u2026 That\u2019s the reason we should take the decisions very seriously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(KHAAMA Press): In a pre-ministerial press conference on Monday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stressed the presence of international troops in Afghanistan as condition-based, he said that NATO will not leave the country before the time is right.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cOur common goal is clear. Afghanistan should never again serve as a haven for terrorists to attack our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archived-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3285,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3284\/revisions\/3285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}