Donald Trump announced Thursday that US Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo will travel to Doha to participate in the start of the Afghanistan peace talks.
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Taliban-Kabul talks, delayed for more than six months, will start in Qatar on Saturday in an attempt to end nearly 19 years of conflict between the two sides in Afghanistan.
“I can announce with great pride that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be leaving this evening on a historic trip to Doha, Qatar, for the start of the inter-Afghan peace negotiations,” said the President of the United States.
“We get along very well with the Taliban in Afghanistan,” assured the Republican billionaire about the insurgents with whom Washington signed a historic agreement on February 29.
The Taliban have pledged not to let terrorists operate in areas they control, to reduce violence, and to negotiate directly with the government in Kabul for the first time. In return, the US military announced a timetable for the total withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan.
Despite the successive postponements of the talks and a still high level of violence, the United States has so far kept its withdrawal schedule, and intends to announce a further downsizing before the US presidential election on November 3.