As US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is holding talks with the Taliban in Qatar, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday he hoped the envoy makes enough progress for him to travel in a couple of weeks and help move it further.
US and the Taliban began their latest round of peace talks on February 25 and the sides took two day break for internal deliberations before resuming talks on March 2.
“I hope Ambassador Khalilzad makes progress. I’m hoping he makes enough progress I can travel there in a couple weeks and help move it along a little bit myself,” Pompeo said after his address at Future Farmers of America event in lowa.
Pompeo said that the aim of negotiation is to try to achieve an Afghanistan that is not at war and that doesn’t pose a threat to US and that will respect fundamental basic rights for Afghan citizens.
“I have a team on the ground right now trying to negotiate with the Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan, trying to find a way to achieve an Afghanistan that’s not at war, that’s not engaged in violence, that doesn’t present a threat to the United States of America, that will respect fundamental basic rights for every Afghan citizen – women, children – across the full spectrum,” Pompeo said.
“That is a complicated problem, and if you add in the regional players – Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, Russia, all who have an interest in Afghanistan – it’s an incredibly complicated negotiation,” Pompeo added.
He said that Khalilzad is on the ground trying to find pockets where there’s sufficient agreement that everyone can begin to move forward, take all the various complex pieces and bring them together to hopefully get an agreement.
“And what’s important to keep in mind – and I’ve talked to you about this twice already, but I think it’s really important – not just a piece of paper – that there’ll be a big ceremony or a ribbon cutting or we’ll announce victory that falls apart, but one – but an agreement that’s based on fundamental understandings about different interests and incentives that the parties have so that this agreement will hold and it will stay,” Pompeo said.
