The U.S. will not be in Afghanistan for an "extended period of time," Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday.
The U.S. will not be in Afghanistan for an “extended period of time,” Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday, refuting reports that a deal reached this week would assure an American military presence and financial obligation through 2024.
“Let me push back very clearly,” Kerry told NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell. “It is way shorter than any kind of years and years.”
Kerry announced that an relations between the U.S. military and the Afghan government. A draft obtained by NBC Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel on Tuesday extended to 2024 and beyond.
Kerry told Mitchell that the purpose of a continued U.S. presence in Afghanistan past the end of 2014 would be to train and advise the Afghan military.
In his State of the Union address in February, President Obama said that “by the end of next year, our war in Afghanistan will be over.”
“I have no contemplation that I’ve heard from the president or otherwise that it is about some years and years,” Kerry told Mitchell.
Asked if he meant that the deal did not extend through 2020 or 2024, Kerry said “no, ma’am.”