Spotlight: Afghan president seeks U.S. support amid IS threat

Visiting Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday voiced his wish to improve relations with the United States, when his country is facing increasing threat from extremist groups like the Islamic State (IS).

Ghani, who started his presidency last September, was currently on a week-long state visit to the United States to lay the groundwork for new relations between the two countries after more than a decade of troubled ties under the leadership of his predecessor, Hamid Karzai.

The visit is taking place after the security transition from the U.S.-led NATO coalition forces, involving the withdrawal of more than 120,000 allied troops from Afghanistan, despite the ongoing Taliban-led militancy and impoverished economic situation of the region.

Washington-Kabul relations have experienced ups and downs and hit their lowest level during Karzai's reign as he accused the U.S.-led coalition forces of highhandedness and of killing Afghan civilians during military operations.

The former president also refused to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) to legalize the presence of a limited number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, a contentious subject that Ghani inked in his second working day after assuming office to put bilateral relations back on track.

INCREASING THREAT FROM IS

Addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress, Ghani warned that the IS has posed a "grave and present danger" to Afghanistan's security transition.

"Afghanistan's security transition took place against the backdrop of the unexpected rise of religious extremism in the Middle East," he said. "Terrorist movements whose goal is to destabilize every state in the region are looking for new bases of operation. We are the front line."

Ghani's address came as the Congress debates defense spending and other areas of the U.S. budget. Lawmakers are also considering U.S. President Barack Obama's request for authorization of his military campaign against the IS, which has met stiff resistance on Capitol Hill.

Just hours before Ghani's speech to U.S. lawmakers, at least six people were killed and more than 30 were wounded in a suicide car bombing near the presidential palace in Kabul, the Afghan capital city.

"From the West, the Daesh is already sending advance guards to southern and western Afghanistan to push our vulnerabilities," said Ghani, referring to the IS in its Arabic name. "To the south, Pakistan's counterinsurgency operations ... are pushing the Taliban from South Waziristan toward Afghanistan's border regions."

Given the deficiencies in the Afghan security forces which now stand at about 330,000, a fragile new government which failed to form a full-member cabinet six months into formation, and fear that the IS would gain a foothold in Afghanistan, Obama announced Tuesday that no reduction of U.S. troops in Afghanistan would occur this year.

Obama had previously planned to reduce the current level of 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan to around 5,500 by the end of 2015 and withdraw all troops by the end of 2016 when Obama's presidency comes to an end.

Meanwhile, Obama said drawdown timeline through 2016 would be decided later this year.

OPTIMISM ABOUT FUTURE TIES

During Wednesday's speech, Ghani also voiced a revitalized optimism about his country's relations with the United States, saying that his country will be self-reliant within this decade.

"We're not going to be the lazy Uncle Joe ... We don't want your charity," he said. "We have no more interest in perpetuating a childish dependence than you have in being saddled with a poor family member who lacks the energy and drive to go out and find a job."

Ghani admitted that decades of war have resulted in high levels of fraud and graft in Afghanistan and promised to eliminate corruption.

In spite of the international community's engagement with Afghanistan over the past 13 years, the country is still among the poorest in the world and marred by corruption and rampant poppy.

Political observers said that as public opinion in the U.S. has drastically dropped down with regard to supporting the Afghan war, Ghani during his speeches at U.S. institutions including the Congress has to allay concerns and prove that Afghanistan is a trustworthy ally of Washington.

Afghanistan and the United States are strategic partners and Washington should renew its commitment to the region during Ghani's visit to support Afghanistan, said Saifudin Saihoon, a university professor in Kabul.

"Signing the BSA by the national unity government has already removed the obstacle in U.S.-Afghan relations and opened a new chapter in their relationship," Saihoon added. Endi