There was no immediate reaction from the Pentagon or the US Department of State to the comments from a member of a Taliban delegation visiting Moscow. US and Taliban delegations met in Qatar in January and are due to meet again in February. A US official at last month's meeting said significant progress was made, though more talks were needed on US demands for a Taliban ceasefire before any withdrawal and other issues. Hanafi said Washington and the Taliban had also agreed that all foreign troops would eventually leave, and that Afghanistan would never be used as a base for attacks on the United States. A US official said in December that Trump was planning to withdraw more than 5,000, or more than a third, of the 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan.

Source: Dhaka Tribune February 06, 2019 16:07 UTC