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KABUL: U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo backed the American troop drawdown from Afghanistan, saying that every U.S. administration has wanted to drawdown the number of troops in the country.
“Logged a lot of air miles to Qatar and Afghanistan and back for talks. Thanks to Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Deputy Prime Minister of Qatar, Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani,” Pompeo said in series of tweet.
Pompeo also attached a video clip of the former U.S. President, Barak Obama and saying as “every Administration since Bush 43 wanted to draw down U.S. troops and forge peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government. We did it. Don’t just take my word for it.”
The US and Taliban after over ten rounds of controversial peace negotiations forge a peace deal in February 29th of 2020. The agreement that also laid out the drawdown of the U.S. troops in Afghanistan stipulated the Taliban to cut ties with the al-Qaeda terrorist network who mastermind the 9/11 attack in the US, leaving over 2,500 American killed and scores of others wounded.
The agreement also pave the ground for the intra-Afghan negotiations which are presently paused after the negotiation teams of the government an Taliban decided to take a break to consult the agendas of the talks with their leaderships .
Pompeo termed the US-Taliban deal successful, saying that no American soldier was killed in Afghanistan in almost one year. “Afghans are finally discussing peace and reconciliation among themselves. Such incredible progress,” he added.
Secretary of State cited that the US mission in Afghanistan is to eliminate the al-Qaeda and threats against the US. “Don’t need 10s of 1,000s of U.S. troops on the ground to do that. We have partners: brave Afghans, NATO forces. We also have the ability to project power from afar,” Pompeo said.
Although the Trump administration still backs its peace deal with the Taliban, reports from the Afghan officials and UN Assistant Mission in Afghanistan revealed that the militants didn’t cut ties with the al-Qaeda.
