WASHINGTON, Aug 31: Negotiations with the Taliban to settle the Afghanistan conflict are going well but no deal has been reached yet, President Donald Trump told reporters on the White House lawn before flying to Camp David for the weekend.
“We have very good negotiations going on with the Taliban,” Trump said on Friday. “We haven’t made a deal yet.”
The United States, Trump added, will leave around 8,600 troops in Afghanistan concentrated on policing operations.
Earlier in the day, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told Sputnik that reports a deal had been reached were not true. Another Taliban spokesman said this week that the negotiators were closing in on a peace deal that will ensure an end to the 18-year war in Afghanistan.
The ninth round of talks between the United States and the Taliban movement in the Qatari capital of Doha entered its eighth day on Thursday. The parties have been negotiating a potential deal that calls for the extraction of US forces in exchange for Taliban counterterror assurances.
(AGENCIES)
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