Obama, Karzai Agree: US to Pull Out from Afghanistan 2014

A file photo dated 12 May 2010 showing President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai (L) and US President Barack Obama (back) holding a news conference following their bilateral meeting, in the East Room of the White House in Washington DC, USA. EPA/BGNES

US President Barack Obama and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai have reaffirmed that US troops would leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, despite calls for an earlier withdrawal.

Obama and Karzai spoke in a telephone conversation on Friday and reaffirmed they were committed to the agreed timetable "in which Afghan forces would complete the process of transition and have full responsibility for security across the country by the end of 2014," the White House said in a statement.

Karzai, in Thursday talks with US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, had insisted international forces, i.e. the NATO-led ISAF, leave Afghan villages and be "relocated in their bases" and that Afghanistan is ready to take responsibility for its security.

Karzai gave no timeline other than saying NATO should hand over to Afghan forces in 2013.

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