*KABUL: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on a surprise visit toAfghanistan on Monday, promised support for President Ashraf Ghani’s bid tostart peace talks with the Taliban and repeated the United States would bewilling to take part.*
The visit, at the end of a tour of Asian countries including North Koreaand Vietnam, was Pompeo’s first to Afghanistan since he became Secretary ofState in April.
He said the strategy announced last year by President Donald Trump ofsending more troops to increase pressure on the Taliban and push themtoward negotiations was working, and would reassure Afghans “that we willsupport them as they continue fighting to liberate their country and theirpeople.”
“The strategy sends a clear message to the Taliban that they cannot wait usout,” he said.
Pompeo’s visit follows one by the State Department’s top diplomat for Southand Central Asia, Alice Wells, who said this month that pressure wasbuilding on the Taliban to respond to Ghani’s offer for peace talks.
Standing with him at a news conference in the presidential palace in Kabul,Ghani, who earlier this year offered peace talks without preconditions,said it would be necessary to move with caution.
“If we think only in one day a 40 year-crisis can be ended we are beingunrealistic,” he said.
Following a three-day ceasefire during last month’s Eid holiday, theTaliban have so far rejected Ghani’s offer of talks, demanding thewithdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan. – Agencies