Iran press/Asia: Jim Mattis arrived in Afghanistan accompanied by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine General Joseph Dunford, will also meet the new commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan, US Army General Scott Miller who assumed command of NATO forces in Afghanistan on Sunday.
Speaking with reporters this week, jim Mattis said he was hopeful about peace talks with the Taliban.
“[There is] still hard fighting but right now we have more indications that reconciliation is no longer just a shimmer out there, no longer just a mirage,” Mattis said ahead of his visit.
As US Defense Secretary tries to push for Taliban deal, two senior Taliban field commanders suggested they are open to peace talks with the Afghan government after 17 years of war.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has met with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan in Islamabad to asks Pakistan to facilitate Afghan-Taliban peace talks .
Related:
Imran Khan: US should leave Afghanistan
Local Pakistani media said the meeting on Wednesday was to be mainly about the prospects of a negotiated end to the war.
civilian casualities in the first six months of the year
As fighting is continued with full intensity around the country, according to some reports US officials have met Taliban leaders in secret this year.
The United Nations said in a statement that blasts, attacks and clashes between militants and Afghan forces killed over 1,600 civilians in the first six months of the year, the highest number in the past decade.
The Taliban said in a recent statement that they had control over half of Afghanistan. A recent survey found that the group was active in two-thirds of the country and was fully controlling four percent of it.
The government controls only 56 per cent of districts, according to June figures from a US watchdog, down from 66 per cent two years before.
Afghan government controls only 56 per cent of districts
US president Donald Trump initially called for a total US troop withdrawal but he recommitted America to an indefinite military presence in the country, the US has sent in thousands of additional forces to train Afghans, bringing the total number of US troops to more than 14,000.
Washington's involvement in the Afghan conflict is now in its 17th year. Since 2001, the US-led invasion has cost nearly 200,000 lives
Read More:
US troops unlikely to leave Afghanistan
Afghan official : US military presence causes insecurity in Afghanistan
