Pompeo called for Taliban-Afghan government peace talks

Speaking in an interview with Fox News released on Friday, Pompeo said that the US has made some progress both with the Afghan government and the Taliban.

As US has held five rounds of talks with the Taliban, Pompeo said there is no deal at this point.

“We don’t have final resolution there but we are working towards a political reconciliation. We’ve been hard at it Ambassador Khalilzad has been on the ground in Doha for six or eight days back I think yesterday,” Pompeo said.

He said that US President Donald Trump had made clear that his objective in Afghanistan is to end the “endless war.”

“But he wants to do it in a way that we don’t increase risk to the United States from terror acts coming from Afghanistan,” Pompeo said.

Pompeo also said that the US was not dealing from weakness.

“We’re not naive. We know precisely who it is we’re sitting across the table from whether that’s in Korea or Iran or in. Afghanistan. We know who these people are and we’re picking points where America can be more secure,” Pompeo said.

Asked about Pakistan which is accused of supporting the Taliban, Pompeo called on the country to do more. “They have to stop harbouring this terror,” Pompeo said.