Less than 2 years remain until the deadline for the total withdrawal of the troops led by the US from Afghanistan expires.

However, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told recently US broadcaster CBS that the United States’ 2016 deadline for pulling out the last of the coalition troops may need to be “re-examined”.

In his first interview for U.S. television as president, Mr Ghani underlined that “deadlines should not be dogmas”.

“If both parties, or, in this case, multiple partners, have done their best to achieve the objectives and progress is very real, then there should be willingness to reexamine a deadline,” the Afghan President said.

Whan asked whether President Obama knows this, he replied, “President Obama knows me. We don’t need to tell each other.”