Top Pakistani diplomat calls for ‘responsible’ withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in wake of peace deal with Taliban

Pakistan’s foreign minister has urged the US to pull its troops out of Afghanistan in a responsible fashion, after US President Donald Trump said that the expected peace deal with the Taliban may bring American soldiers home.

“We want a responsible withdrawal,” Shah Mahmood Qureshi told Reuters in Qatar’s capital Doha, where US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to oversee the signing of a peace deal with the Taliban on Saturday.

“It’s an important day… Hopefully it will set the tone for peace and stability in Afghanistan,” Qureshi said of the upcoming event.

When asked by Fox News last month whether the US should leave the region, Qureshi said: “Even if you withdraw, do it responsibly. Do not do what you did in the 1980s, when you created a vacuum, and destructive forces came in to fill that vacuum.”

The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, after several years of fighting, and stayed in power until it was banished from Kabul and other major Afghan cities during the 2001 US invasion which followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Taliban and other militants have resurged in recent years, winning more ground from the US-backed government.

Trump announced the upcoming peace deal on Friday, saying that it can potentially end the decades-long civil war in Afghanistan and “bring our troops home.”

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