Kabul Is Fully Apprised About US-Taliban Talks: Pompeo

The U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday said that the Afghan government is fully apprised about ongoing talks between the United States and Taliban representatives.

Testifying before House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Pompeo said that US Ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass talks to President Ashraf Ghani “multiple times every week, multiple times every day on some days.”

Pompeo said that his country is focused on making sure that the gains that have been achieved during the last 17 years in Afghanistan aren’t lost as part of peace process.

 “You should know, we are very, very focused on making sure that the gains that have been achieved aren’t lost as part of this. The security gains that have been achieved, the gains, all be it intermittent with respect to corruption,” Pompeo said. “We hope we can actually do better. But as you well know, this is still a very difficult place. It is the reason we still have thousands of soldiers on the ground. And we are focused on taking down the level of violence.”

The Secretary of State further said that terror groups like Daesh and al-Qaeda are still in Afghanistan.