By Ankit Panda
Kabul and Washington are trying to nip the Islamic State in the bud in Afghanistan.
On Sunday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the United States’ outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey met to discuss the rising threat of the Islamic State in Afghanistan. Specifically, Dempsey spoke with Ghani about a joint U.S.-Afghan strategy to counter the Islamic State group’s rise in the country which has become increasingly violent as U.S. troops began withdrawing at the end of 2014. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, Dempsey and Ghani discussed ” the possibility of forming a network to oppose the transregional threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.”
“I think we’re all having an important discussion on how to address the transregional nature of what is clearly a persistent threat that has to be addressed at a sustainable level of effort over a period of time,” Dempsey told reporters. He has emphasized the need for a trans-national and trans-regional strategy to counter the spreading influence of the Islamic State. Dempsey summarized Ghani’s view on the issue: “His view is: ‘Hey, look, I’m a willing partner in an area where you may not have willing partners,’” he told reporters.
For the moment, the Obama administration hasn’t quite figured out just how the sudden “rise” of the Islamic State in Afghanistan—if it can be called that—will address the broader U.S. withdrawal plan. Per the Bilateral Security Agreement between the United States and Afghanistan, only a small contingent of U.S. troops would stay behind to train their Afghan counterparts and engage in limited counter-terrorism operations. A broader effort to counter the Islamic State could require a recalibration of this plan.
Read the full story at The Diplomat