US Ambassador in Kabul Ryan Crocker sees “every chance” for American forces presence on Afghan soil to “advise and assist” the country post-2014 withdrawal of combat troops, according to an American newspaper Tuesday. A column in The Philadelphia Inquirer said the envoy – who previously served in Islamabad – also favors the resumption of a “high-level strategic dialogue” with Pakistan. Going forward, Crocker advocates that continued U.S. economic and military aid would be essential to keep Afghanistan stable after American troop drawdown. He also says there will not be “some kind of grand bargain with (Taliban leader) Mullah Omar” to stop the Afghan fighting, but that the Afghan government can win over individual Taliban leaders. “I think there is every chance that post-2014 we will continue to have a presence here,” Crocker says, “certainly to advise and assist.” He also stressed the need to resume a “high-level strategic dialogue” with Pakistan. Crocker is skeptical about the prospects for a broad peace agreement with the Taliban, despite U.S. efforts to engage them over the last year. “There will be no negotiated deal with Mullah Omar,” he says. “It wouldn’t work here. You have a fractured, divided Taliban.” According to the Inquirer writing, Crocker doubts that the Haqqani faction of the Afghan Taliban, allegedly based in Pakistan, and fighting U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan, will ever reconcile.
