Deteriorating security situation: US mulling over downsizing embassy in Kabul

NEW YORK: Amid the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, US officials in Kabul are developing plans to reduce the large contingent of contractors and other personnel at the massive US Embassy complex, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Saturday.

Citing embassy officials and contractors, the newspaper said in a dispatch from Kabul that State Department officials are undertaking an intensive look at the number of staffers at the embassy, which houses roughly 4,000 diplomats, contractors and other staff, including about 1,400 Americans. The review is expected to result in a significant reduction of the thousands of Afghan and American contractors as well as those from other countries, the newspaper said, citing officials.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s top spokesperson Friday acknowledged a ‘deteriorating security situation’ in Afghanistan amid claims from the Taliban that the insurgent group now controls a large majority of the country. “What we have seen is a deteriorating security situation on the ground, no question about that, that the Taliban continues to take district centers,” Pentagon press Secretary John Kirby said in an interview with CNN. “We are seeing them continue to advance on district centers around the country, and it is concerning.”

Kirby’s comment came after the Taliban claimed to now control 85 percent of Afghanistan. The assertion was made by a Taliban negotiator during a news conference in Moscow, where a senior Taliban delegation was visiting this week to offer reassurances the insurgents’ recent gains will not threaten Russia or its Central Asian allies. Kirby told CNN he was “not in a position to quantify or to validate” the Taliban’s claims on how much territory it controls.

According to WSJ report, US diplomatic officials also were weighing whether some of jobs at the embassy could be sent to the US and whether others could be reduced or trimmed altogether, the report said. The security situation, it said, in Afghanistan has put US Embassy officials in a difficult position as Washington has tried to signal to Afghan officials that it would continue to support the government, while also preparing to respond to security concerns. “We don’t want to draw down the mission so much so we can’t do our crucial diplomatic work,” one official was quoted as saying in the WSJ report.

The US Embassy in Kabul, one of the largest US embassies in the world, is responsible for maintaining contacts with the Afghan government and other allies, along with reporting on political and security developments and overseeing a multibillion-dollar aid budget. The American embassy is a vast compound of about 36 acres alongside the US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military headquarters in the upscale neighbourhood of Wazir Akbar Khan, a heavily fortified area, known as the Green Zone. The complex has been expanding over much of the past decade, according to the report.