Pentagon Chief Assures Afghanistan of U.S. Support -- WSJ

The Pentagon’s top official assured Afghanistan’s government on Monday that the U.S. wouldn’t desert the country’s security forces, the Afghan Defense Ministry said, signaling American support for the jittery government while the U.S. holds talks with the Taliban to end the country’s 17-year war.

In his first overseas trip as acting defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan met senior U.S. military officers and top Afghan officials, including President Ashraf Ghani, whose government has been excluded from the latest effort to negotiate a settlement of the punishing conflict. The Taliban have refused to enter talks with the Kabul administration, which they say is illegitimate.

An Afghan Defense Ministry statement in Dari and Pashto, the country’s two main languages, said Mr. Shanahan had assured Afghanistan’s acting defense minister that under a peace deal the U.S. “wouldn’t abandon Afghan forces in training and fighting terrorism.” An English version of the statement omits the pledge to the Afghan official, Asadullah Khalid.

An aide to Mr. Shanahan said that during the meeting with the defense minister, the Pentagon chief affirmed the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan’s security and discussed the progress in President Trump’s South Asia strategy.

Earlier, the former Boeing executive, who became acting defense secretary in December following the resignation of Jim Mattis, told reporters accompanying him on his unannounced visit to Kabul that Afghan government participation in the peace process is important.

“The Afghans have to decide what Afghanistan looks like in the future,” he said. “It’s not about the U.S., it’s about Afghanistan.”

It wasn’t clear whether Mr. Shanhan indicated to Mr. Ghani how or when his government would be brought into the peace process.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special envoy leading the American negotiating effort, said in a speech on Friday in Washington that he wanted dialogue among Afghans to “start right away.”

In response, Mr. Ghani told President Trump in a letterlast month that his government was willing to discuss how to reduce the size and cost of the American military presence in Afghanistan. The Trump administration requested $45 billion for combat operations in the country this fiscal year and $5.2 billion in aid for the Afghan security forces. - More

Pentagon Chief Assures Afghanistan of U.S. Support - WSJ