President Donald Trump has not made a decision yet on sending more American troops to support forces in Afghanistan and he is consulting the US allies on the issue, the White House said today.
"The president has not made a decision yet on a course of action. What we have done, which is what we have done in many cases, on the North Korea problem set, for example, is we've consulted broadly across our government and with allies," US National Security Advisor H R McMaster told reporters at a White House news conference.
"The president wants to hear from our allies as well. This is a President who listens to his allies and partners. He'll have an opportunity to do so at the NATO summit. He'll have an opportunity to do so at the G-7," McMaster said.
Trump is scheduled to travel to Brussels for NATO summit and then to Italy to attend the G-7 summit.
"So, what we we'll have at the end this next few weeks here, is an opportunity for a much more effective strategy for the problem set in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the region broadly," McMaster told reporters, indicating that the Af-Pak policy of the Trump administration would take some time before it is announced.
However, he reiterated America's commitment to Afghanistan.
"The key is all of us have to be committed, to achieving our fundamental objectives in Afghanistan," he said.
"Americans know really better than anybody because the mass murder against our own country on September 11, 2001, originated with a terrorist safe haven and support base in Afghanistan," he added.
"Recently we have been engaged against ISIS Khorasan in Afghanistan with highly successful operations there," he said adding that details of which would be announced by the Department of Defence in the near future.
"But what has happened in Afghanistan, is the Afghan army is taking the brunt of the fight against these transnational terrorists and the Taliban," he said.
"We are working with our allies to figure out what more we can do to have a more effective strategy in Afghanistan, what are options we can bring to the president to be more effective in meeting our objectives in Afghanistan, and what more can we ask our allies to do which we're asking them now," McMaster said in response to a question.
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