WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he wants to get out of Afghanistan “as quickly as he can” and reiterated that the US should not have been in these wars.
The Trump administration has intensified its efforts in recent months to seek a negotiated settlement of America’s longest war in Afghanistan where the US has lost over 2,400 soldiers since late 2001, when it invaded the country after the 9/11 terror attacks.
US Special Envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad is currently holding talks with the Taliban to work out an agreement for withdrawal of the US troops and participation of the rebel group in the Afghan government.
“We’ll continue to (pull out troops from Afghanistan). Well, we’re going to see. We’re working on negotiating a deal right now, as you probably have heard, and you know, at some point, we want to get out as quickly as we can,” Trump told C-Span in an interview.
His remarks comes two days after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that President Trump has ordered him to reduce the number of American troops in war-torn Afghanistan before the presidential elections in 2020.
During the presidential election campaign in 2016, Trump had pledged to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan and end America’s longest war.
“I want to get out of these crazy wars that we should’ve never been in,” Trump said in response to a question.
“These wars are – wars we could’ve done great damage through intelligence and other things and not having gotten in,” he asserted. PTI
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