Secretary Pompeo and President Ghani spoke by phone on July 24 and agreed that now is the time to accelerate efforts to reach a negotiated end to the war in Afghanistan.  Secretary Pompeo assured President Ghani that there has been no change to President Trump’s South Asia strategy, including U.S. commitment to a conditions-based drawdown.  Secretary Pompeo informed President Ghani that he had dispatched Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford and Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad to Kabul to discuss in detail the next steps on the road to peace.  President Ghani welcomed the Secretary’s engagement and the U.S. visitors, and confirmed Afghanistan’s commitment to working side-by-side with the United States to achieve a stable, peaceful, democratic Afghanistan that is not a center for terrorism.

By U.S. Embassy in Kabul | 25 July, 2019 | Topics: Exclude, News, Press Releases