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US senator urges Obama to suspend plans to reduce US forces in Afghanistan
![SENATOR_04_07_2016_DARI_SOT.mpg_snapshot_00.54_[2016.07.04_15.59.22]](https://ariananews.af/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/SENATOR_04_07_2016_DARI_SOT.mpg_snapshot_00.54_2016.07.04_15.59.22.jpg)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday urged President Obama to suspend plans to reduce U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
“The one thing I want people to know, if you forget about Afghanistan, you do so at your own peril. This is where 9/11 originated. The president is about to make the most consequential decision of his presidency in a long time about troop levels,” he said on CBS’s “Face The Nation.”
“Mr. President, this time around, accept sound military advice. … Let the next president, whoever he or she may be, deal with Afghanistan. Please do not cut these troop levels in half. If you do, Afghanistan is going to become Iraq very quickly.”
Graham said the U.S. has made progress against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria on the ground in Iraq and Syria, but he added there is no strategy to replace Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“If Assad stays in power in Syria, the war in Syria never ends and you can’t stabilize Iraq,” he said.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) added that if the U.S. cuts its troops in Afghanistan and “these forces take over, then there will be further attacks on the United States of America.”
“There’s going to be further attacks on the United States of America as long as they have a base in Syria,” he said, “but then they’ll have another base in Afghanistan.”
This comes as US senator John McCain expressed support for Pakistan’s efforts in the fight against the Taliban after visiting a key tribal district recently retaken by the military, the Pakistani foreign ministry said Sunday.
A four-member, bipartisan US Senate delegation led by the former presidential candidate went to North Waziristan, where in 2014, under US pressure, the army launched an operation to wipe out militant bases and end the near decade-long Islamist insurgency.
In May, the army announced it had successfully cleared the area of militants.
US Vice President JD Vance said on Friday that Joe Biden administration left about $80 billion worth of military equipment in Afghanistan, which was a “catastrophic error.”
Vance made the remarks during a visit to a military base in Greenland.
He also said the Biden administration’s “catastrophic error” led to the deaths of 13 US soldiers in an attack during the evacuation at Kabul airport in August 2021.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump also criticized the abandonment of military equipment in Afghanistan and called for its return.
The Islamic Emirate, however, has said that the weapons left by the US in Afghanistan belong to the Afghans and will not be returned.
The Supreme Court announced on Saturday that based on the ruling of the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate, 2,463 prisoners have been pardoned and released on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr.
The court said in a statement that the prison terms of another 3,152 prisoners have been reduced.
Eid in Afghanistan will be celebrated on Sunday or Monday, depending on the moon sighting.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs on Saturday announced that feasibility studies of dams in four provinces of the country will begin this solar year.
The Economic Commission, led by Deputy PM Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in its recent meeting decided to include the survey and feasibility projects of Grumby Dam in Maidan Wardak, Qara Tiri Dam in Balkh, Shana Nari Dam in Kandahar, and Wuch Nari Dam in Paktia in the budget for the fiscal year 1404.
In the meeting, the issues of construction of the Kandahar bypass highway, construction of Arghistan Dam, 90 km of electricity line from Kabul to Jalalabad, and completion of Sheikh Misri substation in Jalalabad were also discussed, and it was decided that the Ministry of Finance will allocate the revenues obtained from the Ganda Kotal lead and zinc mine in Yakawlang district of Bamyan province to these projects.
The Economic Commission meeting also approved a plan for the private sector’s investment in a 40 megawatts solar power generation project in the Hesar Shahi Industrial Park in Nangarhar province. According the plan, the private sector will invest $50.69 million in the project.
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