The Army chief of staff, Gen. Mark Milley, stopped in Kabul to address resolving the conflict in Afghanistan with President Ashraf Ghani, a new report says.
According to Ghani’s office, Milley backed Afghan-led discussions with the Taliban during his visit, the Associated Press reports. The Taliban has repeatedly rejected efforts to engage in conversations with Ghani’s representatives, but the U.S. will participate in discussions with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, later this month.
Milley’s visit comes after the Pentagon has been directed by President Trump to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan. There are 15,000 U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan who are largely responsible for advising and training Afghan security forces as part of the Resolute Support Mission, which was first launched in 2015 after the NATO combat mission formally ended in 2014.
Despite previous discussions between special U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban representatives, the Pentagon determined last month in a report to Congress that negotiations are at an “impasse.”
“The current military situation inside of Afghanistan remains at an impasse,” the Pentagon report said.
“The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) remain in control of most of Afghanistan’s population centers and all of the provincial capitals, while the Taliban control large portions of Afghanistan’s rural areas, and continue to attack poorly defended government checkpoints and rural district centers,” the report said.
Trump announced last month that he would nominate Milley to serve as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He would take the place of Gen. Joseph Dunford, who is slated to retire this fall.
[Also read: Trump turns Afghanistan strategy on its head]
