Pompeo, in surprise visit to Afghanistan, urges Taliban peace talks

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

WORLD NEWS JULY 9, 2018 / 9:49 AM / UPDATED 4 MINUTES AGO

Pompeo, in surprise visit to Afghanistan, urges Taliban peace talks

David Brunnstrom
3 MIN READ

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Monday, promised support for President Ashraf Ghani’s bid to start peace talks with the Taliban and repeated the United States itself would be willing to join the talks.

The visit, coming at the end of a tour of Asian countries including North Korea and Vietnam, was Pompeo’s first to Afghanistan since he became Secretary of State in April.

He said the strategy announced last year by U.S. President Donald Trump of sending more troops to increase battlefield pressure on the Taliban and push them toward negotiations “sends a message to the Taliban that they cannot wait us out”.

Pompeo’s visit follows one by the State Department’s top diplomat for South and Central Asia, Alice Wells, who said this month that pressure was building on the Taliban to respond to Ghani’s offer for peace talks.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-usa-pompeo/pompeo-in-surprise-visit-to-afghanistan-urges-taliban-peace-talks-idUSKBN1JZ1N9

[Renew Deal]

1. They screwed up North Korea and Israel/Palestine, why not go for a hat trick of disaster?

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Afghanistan is now Putin's

recapture. So many Kids lost for a Neo-Con cause. Only winner was Chevron and Exxon Mobil. They got their Pipeline and China got their Rare Earth Mines,which we were protecting from the Taliban Raiders.