US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a joint news conference in Washington with India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said that he hopes that a reduction of violence in Afghanistan will lead to a ceasefire.”
“We are hopeful that all of the relevant political participants in Afghanistan, the Afghan government, non-Afghan government leaders inside of Afghanistan, the Taliban—we’re hopeful they will all conclude that the right answer is a significant reduction in violence, leading to a ceasefire,” Pompeo said.
“Negotiations amongst and between the Afghan peoples and their leaders, such that the United States can reduce its footprint while continuing to ensure that the threat of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan to the homeland here in the United States has a greatly reduced risk,” he said.
Jaishankar said he believes peace process should be “Afghan-led and Afghan-owned.”
“Of course, we are concerned about the future of Afghanistan, which is why we’ve had a large development assistance program there,” he said.
“We believe that the reconciliation process in Afghanistan should be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned. We have every confidence that the gains which have been achieved by the international community over the last two decades will be protected and preserved in that process,” he added.
US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in a tweet on Wednesday night said: “We’re approaching an important stage in the Afghan peace process. Wrapped up two days of consultations in Kabul. Productive trip.”
Khalilzad during his trip to Kabul met with US Ambassador John Bass, Gen. Austin Scott Miller, commander of US and NATO Forces in Afghanistan, President Ashraf Ghani, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, former president Hamid Karzai, women activists, and other political leaders and discussed efforts to achieve reduced violence and pave the way to intra-Afghan negotiations.
