Afghan peace talks with Taliban has resumed: Trump

November 29, 2019 09:56

United States President Donald Trump has confirmed that his administration had resumed talks with the Taliban with the purpose of bringing peace in Afghanistan, but refused to give a timeline for drawdown of his troops.

"Yes," Trump told a small group of reporters at the Bagram Air Filed on Thursday when asked to confirm whether the US had restarted discussions with the Taliban after calling the peace talks "dead" in September.

During his first and surprise trip to Afghanistan on Thanksgiving, Trump said the terms of the deal would have to include a Taliban ceasefire, adding that he thought the Taliban would agree to it.

"The Talbian wants to make a deal and we're meeting with them and we're saying it has to be a ceasefire and they didn't want to do a ceasefire and now they do want to do a ceasefire. I believe it'll probably work out that way," he said.

The president said the US had made tremendous progress over the past six months and had been drawing down its troops at the same time.

"We're going to stay until such time as we have a deal or we have total victory and they (Taliban) want to make a deal very badly," he told reporters during a hastily-arranged bilateral meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the air field, the largest US base in Afghanistan.

Trump confirmed that he hoped to reduce the number of American troops in Afghanistan to 8,600.

The US currently has less than 14,000 troops in Afghanistan, but military officials would not confirm the exact number.

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