Czech President Decries NATO's Withdrawal From Afghanistan

PRAGUE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th June, 2021) Czech President Milos Zeman at the NATO summit in Brussels on Monday denounced the alliance's troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, warning that it could turn the country into a new hotspot of terrorism, his spokesman said.

On May 1, the United States and NATO began pulling their troops out of Afghanistan. American forces are expected to leave by September 11, the 20th anniversary of terrorist attacks against the United States that sparked the so-called War on Terror by then-President George W. Bush.

"At the summit, President of the Republic Milos Zeman criticized the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan.

He recalled that Czech soldiers had laid down their lives in the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan. He also warned that the Taliban, after taking over the entire country, could turn Afghanistan into a new center of terrorism," Jiri Ovcacek tweeted.

Armed violence continues in Afghanistan despite the Kabul-Taliban peace talks and the start of the withdrawal of foreign troops. The negotiations and the troop pullout are a part of the 2020 US-Taliban peace deal signed in 2020, which also committed the radical movement to reducing violence and cutting ties with terrorists.