Berlin rejects demands for setting troop withdrawal date from Afghanistan
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Berlin, Oct 7, IRNA
Germany-Afghanistan-Mandate
The German government here Tuesday dismissed mounting public calls for specifying a date for a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg told journalists that such demands for an Afghanistan exit strategy timetable were 'negligent and problematic'.
"Any debate about a possible end of the (Afghan) mandate is negligent," he reiterated.
The reconstruction of the Afghan state cannot take place by simply 'pushing a button', Steg said.
He added no one could say when the Afghan people would be able to take over their own security.
The German cabinet approved earlier in the day a 14-month extension of German troop deployment in Afghanistan.
It also agreed to raise the number of Afghanistan-based German soldiers from 3,500 to 4,500 soldiers as part of a bill to be discussed by the parliament later in the day.
The German Parliament is expected to approve the bill once it comes up for vote in mid-October.
Germany has deployed around 3,500 soldiers in northern Afghanistan and Kabul as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in addition to police instructors and civilian reconstruction workers.
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