Pompeo on Afghan Peace Talks: ‘We’re on a Pathway to Achieve’ Zero U.S. Forces in Afghanistan by Spring 2021
DOHA, Qatar — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Breitbart News exclusively — after meetings between Afghan government officials and Taliban leaders as part of the beginning of intra-Afghan peace negotiations — that the process is moving along on pace for a full withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by the spring of 2021.
“I do,” Pompeo said when asked if the process is moving on pace with a Feb. 29 agreement between the United States and Taliban leadership that laid out the framework for the United States to reduce the troop count to zero by April or May of next year.
Pompeo told Breitbart News that the process for a full withdrawal of all U.S. forces by the spring of next year requires three main conditions of the Afghan government and Taliban leaders.
“The conditionality is really three-fold,” Pompeo said. “One, there is an obligation they have with respect to foreign terrorist groups — primarily al-Qaeda, but all four terrorist groups — they are not permitted, and the language is very clear that they are not permitted and that they have to break with them. Second, they have to engage in these conversations in a way that is substantive and not just physically sit in the room, but they need to have serious conversations and begin to work their way through it. Then, third, they have a responsibility as part of that to ensure that outside actors don’t act as spoilers for this, and there are many hands who would like to see this undone and would like to see America mired in Afghanistan for another 20 years. Both the Afghan government and the Taliban have a responsibility to prevent that. Those are the conditions, we’ll measure them. There’s a set of CT metrics that’s pretty clearly laid out. We’ll measure them and the president will make a decision if there’s sufficient compliance to get us to zero. I think we’re on a pathway to achieve that.”
.@SecPompeo arrives in Doha, Qatar, for peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Photo via @mboyle1 pic.twitter.com/GUTYGftHZJ
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) September 11, 2020
While in Qatar’s capital city, Doha, for the Qatari-hosted peace talks between Afghan government officials and Taliban leaders, Pompeo met with both parties as well as with Qatari leaders. These negotiations follow the Feb. 29 agreement between the United States and Taliban leaders that laid out the framework for U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, including most importantly a Taliban commitment not to harbor terrorists from groups like al-Qaeda, which they were doing when they were in power before and in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001.
While these talks were a bit delayed — controversial prisoner swaps, as well as the coronavirus pandemic, slowed their beginning from March or April until now — Pompeo told Breitbart News that the talks were productive and moving in the right direction and on the schedule needed for the United States to finally withdraw all forces from Afghanistan 19 years after the 9/11 attacks.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/09/13/exclusive-secretary-pompeo-afghan-peace-talks-pathway-achieve-zero-u-s-forces-afghanistan/