Washington DC, July 30: United States President Donald Trump seeks the withdrawal of the American armed forces from war-ravaged Afghan before appearing for the next US presidential election, secretary of state Mike Pompeo has said on Monday, while also introducing a timeline to Trump’s plan for cutting short troops stationed there.
Trump’s South Asia scheme, revealed in August 2017, called for an open-finished deployment of US powers with the objective of convincing the Taliban to arrange harmony with the Kabul government to put an end almost 18 years of war.
Addressing The Economic Club of Washington, Pompeo when asked whether he hopes to pull out troops from Afghanistan before the 2020 elections, said, “That’s my directive from the president of the United States,” according to Reuters news reports.
“He’s been unambiguous: End the endless wars, drawdown, reduce. It won’t just be us,” he said, referring to Trump’s directive. “We hope that overall the need for combat forces in the region is reduced.”
The revelation of a timetable will add to the theory that Trump is set up to hit any arrangement with the Taliban revolt that will take into account, in any event, fractional U.S. withdrawal before American voters go to the ballots, regardless of worries by the US-backed Kabul government.
Pompeo’s remarks likewise come at a fragile minute, as the US gets ready to take part in another round of dialogues with the insurgents. Unveiling Trump’s objectives of a troop drawdown could trouble the US negotiating position if the Taliban trust Trump seeks to withdraw, independent of the layouts of any agreement.
On Friday, the US state department stated Pompeo held telephonic conservation with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, during which they concurred to “accelerated efforts” to end the civil war and said America was committed to conditions-based drawdown of troops.
Pompeo stated he was “optimistic” about deals with the Afghan government and the Taliban.
Washington needs to arrange an arrangement under which international powers would withdraw as an end-result of security ensures by the Taliban, including a promise the nation won’t be used as safe haven for global terror organizations.
“We want them to take their country back and we want to reduce what is, for us, tens of billions of dollars a year in expenditures,” Pompeo added.