CRI听力:US's Troops Withdrawal from Afghanistan "Normal"

The office of the Afghan president has issued a response to world the United States has begun plans for a full withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year.

Afghan presidential spokesperson Aimal Faizi says the move by the US is "common sense" and "normal".

"President Obama in the telephone conversation also said that if the bilateral security agreement was not to be signed until the end of 2014 then there was the possibility of withdrawing completely and that is common sense and normal if there is no agreement signed until end of 2014. However, no such decision was made that the bilateral security agreement will not be signed and the US will fully withdrawal from Afghanistan."

The comments follow a telephone conversation between Barack Obama and Hamid Karzai this week, where the US President told Karzai the US will completely withdraw from Afghanistan unless Karzai signs a Bilateral Security Agreement.

Obama has also told Karzai the longer he waits to sign the BSA, the fewer US troops will remain behind.

Under the original BSA, around 10-thousand US troops have been expected to remain behind after NATO withdraws at the end of this year from Afghanistan.

However, Hamid Karzai has so far refused to sign off on the deal, saying he wants assurances from the US military that it will stop conducting raids into Afghan villages.

Karzai has been concerned continued US strikes on Afghan villages in the search for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters may hinder any longer-term plans for peace talks to end the insurgency.