By: Lailuma Noori<\/p>\n
The White House has signaled progress in preparations for a peace deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan, saying that discussions between President Donald Trump and top advisors went \u201cvery well\u201d.
\nThe meeting was aimed to review talks with the Taliban group, possible US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and find a political settlement for the 18-year old war in Afghanistan.
\nTrump met at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf course with national security advisors including Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, the White House said in a statement.
\nAlso present were national security point man John Bolton and the US Special Representative for the Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad.
\nPresident Donald Trump said in a tweet that he had a \u201cvery good\u201d meeting on Afghanistan.
\n\u201cMany on the opposite side of this 19-year war, and us, are looking to make a deal \u2014 if possible,\u201d he added.
\nUS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a tweet said that in continued close cooperation with the government of Afghanistan, we would remain committed to achieving a comprehensive peace agreement.
\nPrior to meeting of the US President with his advisors about Afghanistan, an influential Republican senator has urged President Donald Trump not to hurry in agreement with the Taliban group.
\nLindsey Graham of South Carolina, a presidential ally, has said: \u201cAmerican service members are not acting as policemen in Afghanistan.\u201d
\nIn a statement, Graham said: \u201cThe US soldiers are the front-line of defense for America against the reemergence of radical Islamist groups\u2026\u201d
\nAny peace agreement denying the US a robust counter-terrorism capability in Afghanistan was not a peace deal, the lawmaker remarked.
\n\u201cInstead, it is paving the way for another attack on the American homeland and attacks against American interests around the world,\u201d the senator added.
\nHe asked Trump to make sound and sustainable decisions on the issue. \u201cA bad agreement puts the radical Islamist movement all over the world on steroids.\u201d Graham issued the statement shortly before Trump met top national security advisers at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf resort to discuss the matter. RELATED: Trump to meet security officials on Afghanistan as concerns mount about US withdrawal
\n\u201cPresident Trump should learn from Obama\u2019s mistakes. Be smart, take your time and listen to your national security team,\u201d said Graham, who is seen as a foreign policy hawk.
\nThe senator had vehemently opposed Obama\u2019s decision to withdraw from Iraq, saying the move helped lead to the rise of groups like ISIS.
\nIt is worth mentioning that the US and the Taliban concluded their eighth round of talks on Doha on August 12 which were focused on four key issues: US forces withdrawal, counterterrorism assurances, a ceasefire and intra-Afghan negotiations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Lailuma Noori The White House has signaled progress in preparations for a peace deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan, saying that discussions between President Donald Trump and top advisors went \u201cvery well\u201d. The meeting was aimed to review talks with the Taliban group, possible US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and find a political settlement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archived-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1834,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1833\/revisions\/1834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}