ISLAMABAD – US republican senator Lindsey Graham has said that he will askUS President Donald Trump to hold a meeting with leaders from Afghanistanand Pakistan to help end the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan throughreconciliation and negotiations.

The 17-year long conflict which originally erupted in the aftermath of USmilitary intervention against the Taliban regime in 2001 has claimedthousands of lives of Afghan civilians and security force members withpeace still distant despite intense diplomacy and international efforts inrecent years.

“I am going to urge him (US President Donald Trump) to meet with the primeminister as soon as practical.

I think they will hit it off, similar personalities, and Prime MinisterKhan was criticized over the decades, over the past 10 or 20 years, abouttalking about reconciling with the Taliban.

He was right. One thing I would say is that the war in Afghanistan will endthrough reconciliation,” he said after meeting senior Pakistani officialsin Islamabad on Sunday