America Can’t Risk Dangers of Leaving Afghanistan: Expected U.S. Envoy

America cannot risk the dangers of leaving Afghanistan, President  Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the war-torn country said on Tuesday.

 “We cannot afford not to sustain our efforts in Afghanistan. As a nation, we cannot afford the increased risks and peril that would come from a wholesale departure or rapid reduction in our footprint in Afghanistan,” John R. Bass told lawmakers.

 “We don’t have to guess at the consequences from that policy choice. We experienced those consequences 16 years ago.  And on a smaller but no less lethal scale, we have experienced the consequences that followed when ISIS set up shop in ungoverned spaces in Syria and Iraq, plotting, attacks against the US …” he said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

If confirmed by the Senate, Bass said that he would follow his country’s new strategy for Afghansitan and South Asia approved by President Trump last month.

 “It directs us to tackle the root causes of the enduring conflict in Afghanistan – which include the safe havens the Taliban continues to enjoy in Pakistan, and the support it at times receives from other neighboring states – rather than simply treating the symptoms,” he added.

Bass further said that the U.S. will make clear to the Taliban that it cannot win or outlast U.S. on the battlefield; the only path to peace and political legitimacy is through a negotiated political settlement. 

“As you have heard in briefings on the new strategy, our support for the Afghan government’s efforts to combat Taliban violence and intimidation and resolve the conflict will be dictated by conditions on the ground — not by abstract deadlines… 

“We are signaling support to the Afghan public and the entire region that the United States is determined to create the conditions that enable a political settlement. Those settlement talks, if and when they come, must remain an Afghan-owned, Afghan-led process,” Bass said. 

The expected U.S. diplomat also said that if confirmed, his first regional engagement priority will be to work closely with U.S. ambassador in Islamabad to encourage improvements in the Afghanistan-Pakistan relationship. 

 “I intend to supplement this effort with equally focused work with my fellow ambassadors to ensure key regional countries with a stake in the region’s stability — including India, Russia and China — are doing everything possible to achieve that shared objective.   

“We must address and prevent the hedging among some regional actors that has empowered the Taliban and lengthened the conflict,” Bass added.