On November 23, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance cannot let Daesh rebuild in Afghanistan “the terror caliphate it lost in Syria and Iraq,” reports Tolo News. Secretary General Stoltenberg said US has announced that it will reduce its presence in Afghanistan, but NATO mission will remain and that it will continue to provide support to Afghan security forces. “One of the reasons we need a strong military is for our fight against international terrorism. As we have been doing in Afghanistan for almost 20 years,” he said.Stoltenberg said NATO’s future presence in Afghanistan will be addressed in their next Defense Ministers meeting in February 2021. “We will be faced with a difficult choice,” Stoltenberg said. “Either stay – and pay the price of a continued military engagement. Or leave – and risk that the gains we have made are lost. And that the peace process falters.”
Afghanistan Jens Stoltenberg Islamic State NATO Daesh