KABUL: Afghanistan has a partnership with the US and both sides will jointly act regarding any threats emanating from the country, a spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani said following a media report about NATO planning to prolong its presence in the country. “We have a partnership against joint threats with NATO, which is led by America,” Dawa Khan Menapal, a spokesman for Ghani, told Arab News when asked to comment about the Reuters media report on NATO’s plans. A senior official in Ghani’s administration who is not authorized to speak with the media told Arab News that Kabul had yet to hear officially from NATO about its presence past the May deadline. The NATO source told Reuters that troop levels were expected to stay roughly the same until after May, but the plan beyond that was not clear. Separate Taliban delegations have in the past few days gone to Russia and Iran, which have spoken against the presence of US troops in Afghanistan.

Source: Ethiopian News January 31, 2021 18:58 UTC