WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump said that it is time “to bring our people back home,” following sign of US-Taliban agreement for bringing peace to Afghanistan.
Addressing a press conference in White House, Trump said that the US would reduce its forces in Afghanistan approximately to 8600, “and then we’ll make our final decision some point in the fairly near future.”
The deal was signed by the US Special Envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and the Taliban Deputy Leader, Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Doha, Qatar on Saturday, at the presence US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and representatives of at least 20 countries.
According to the agreement, within the first 135 days of the deal, the US would reduce its troops to 8600 in Afghanistan.
“We just signed an agreement that puts us in a position to get it done, bring us down to in the vicinity of 8,000 troops. The United Nations was informed of everything,” Trump said.
Trump said that he really believed that the Taliban wanted to do something to show that they were not wasting time.
“If bad things happen, we will go back. I let the people know: we will go back and we will go back so fast, and we will go back with a force as nobody has ever seen. I do not think that will be necessary. I hope it is not necessary,” he said.
“The Taliban has given a pledge and a very strong pledge, and we’ll see how that all works out.  We hope it’s going to work out very well, said Trump, “I think they have big incentives to do it, but they have to take care of the terrorists and kill the terrorists.  We’ll be working in a different kind of fashion toward that end.”
Currently, around 14,000 U.S. troops are based in Afghanistan as part of a U.S.-led NATO mission to train, assist and advise Afghan forces. Some U.S. forces also carry out counter-terrorism operations. Following the peace deal between the US and Taliban on Saturday, President Donald Trump at a press conference said he would be personally meeting leaders of the Taliban in the near future. (ATN)