KABUL: Acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan arrived in Afghanistan on asurprise visit Monday as the United States seeks to support the Kabulgovernment while negotiating peace with the Taliban.
Shanahan will meet President Ashraf Ghani, whose government was not part ofmajor talks between US and Taliban officials last month that negotiatorshope could bring a breakthrough in the grinding 17-year conflict.
The US diplomat leading the talks has expressed hope at finding a dealbefore Afghan presidential elections scheduled for July, as PresidentDonald Trump calls for an end to American military involvement in thewar-torn country.
Ghani’s allies in Washington insist Afghans should lead the peace process,but the Taliban consider the Kabul administration a US puppet and refusedto talk to them.
Shanahan reinforced US support for the Kabul government before touchingdown in the Afghan capital.
“It’s important that the Afghan government is involved in discussionsregarding Afghanistan,” Shanahan told reporters on the flight.
“The Afghans have to decide what Afghanistan looks like in the future. It’snot about the US, it’s about Afghanistan.”
The months-long push by the US to engage the Taliban has ostensibly beenaimed at convincing them to negotiate with Kabul.
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The insurgents have refused to meet Ghani government officials.
But last week they held unprecedented talks in Moscow with a high-rankingdelegation of Afghan politicians– including chief Ghani rivals — to discusstheir role in the country’s future and a possible path towards peace.
Trump has been pushing to end US involvement in Afghanistan, where 14,000American troops are still deployed.
But Zalmay Khalilzad, a former ambassador to Afghanistan who has spokenextensively with the Taliban in recent weeks, emphasised that any troopwithdrawal would depend on conditions on the ground.
US and NATO officials have denied that a deal has been struck on Americawithdrawing its troops. The Taliban, speaking in Moscow last week, alsosaid that a timeline had not been agreed upon. – APP/AFP
