Following the peace deal between the US and Taliban on Saturday, President Donald Trump at a press conference said he would be personally meeting leaders of the Taliban in the near future.
“I’ll be meeting personally with Taliban leaders in the not-too-distant future,” Trump said.
“It’s time after all these years to bring our people back home. We want to bring our people back home. Again, it has been a long journey in Afghanistan,” said Trump.
“Want to congratulate President Ghani and the people of Afghanistan. I want to remember all of the people, all of the great, great men and women that have lost their lives in the war,” he said.
His remarks came hours after the US peace envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the co-founder of Taliban, signed the peace agreement at the Sheraton Hotel in Doha, capital of Qatar following 18 months of negotiations.
The agreement was signed following a successful weeklong period of a reduction in violence which was announced on February 22.
At the opening remarks in Doha, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the Taliban have committed to cut their ties with terrorist groups.
“The agreement that we will sign today is the true test of this effort. We will closely watch the Taliban’s compliance with their commitments and calibrate the pace of our withdrawal to their actions. This is how we will ensure that Afghanistan never again serves as a base for international terrorists,” Pompeo said.
He said that over the past seven days, violence levels have reached their lowest point in the last four years.
“The Afghan Government of 2020, and indeed the Afghanistan of 2020, is not the same as in 2001. Embrace the historic progress obtained for women and girls and build on it for the benefit of all Afghans,” he said, adding that “the future of Afghanistan ought to draw on the God-given potential of every single person.”
According to the agreement, the US has committed to withdraw from Afghanistan all its military forces–and coalition allies will also withdraw–within 14 months following the announcement of the agreement.
The agreement states that the United States is committed to start immediately working with all relevant sides on a plan to expeditiously release combat and political prisoners as a confidence-building measure.
There are currently around 13,000 US troops in Afghanistan.
