MONITORING (SW) – US President Donald Trump has said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will depart for Doha, Qatar to begin intra-Afghan peace talks.
"I got a report this morning there has been nobody killed in Afghanistan since early February. There has been no deaths, no problems and a lot of progress is being made," Trump told reporters at the White House.
He said the US would reduce the number of troops in Afghanistan to 4,000 "in a very short period of time" and in Iraq the number will go down to 2,000.
"The negotiations are a result of bold diplomatic effort on part of my administration in recent months and years. The United States will play an important role in bringing the parties together to end the decade’s long war," he added.
Earlier, the top U.S. general in the Middle East confirmed plans for partial troop drawdowns in both Iraq and Afghanistan before the Nov. 3 election, as President Donald Trump seeks to fulfill a campaign promise to end America's "endless wars."
Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, said early Wednesday that the U.S. plans to cut the troop presence in Iraq from 5,200 to 3,000 by the end of September. Speaking to a handful of reporters later, McKenzie provided additional details about the planned withdrawal from Afghanistan, noting that the U.S. military presence would decrease from 8,600 to 4,500 by late October.
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