Trump says to withdraw forces from Afghanistan by year's end

The United States is planning to withdraw all of its forces from Afghanistan by the end of the year, speeding up the timeline for ending America's longest war.

President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter that "We should have the small remaining number of our men and women serving in Afghanistan home by Christmas!"

According to Press TV, Trump's remarks come one month before the November election in which the president, trailing in the polls, has sought to show that he is making good on his 2016 promise to end "endless wars."

But, just hours before the Trump's tweet, US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said the United States had less than 5,000 troops in Afghanistan currently and would go down to 2,500 by early next year.

"Ultimately, the Afghans themselves are going to have to work out an accord, a peace agreement. ... It's going to be slow progress, it’s going to be hard progress, but we think it’s a necessary step – we think Americans need to come home," O'Brien said.

In a deal clinched between the US and the Afghan Taliban militant group in February, the United States promised to pull out all its troops by mid-2021 in return for the Taliban to stop their attacks on US-led occupation foreign forces in Afghanistan.

The Taliban agreed to negotiate a permanent ceasefire and a power-sharing formula with the Afghan government.

The Afghan government and Taliban last month opened peace talks in Qatar, even as key differences, including over a ceasefire, remain between two sides.

Speaking earlier Wednesday, the veteran US diplomat who negotiated with the Taliban, Zalmay Khalilzad, voiced guarded hope for the talks.

"The overwhelming majority of the Afghans would like to see an end to the conflict," Khalilzad, speaking by video from Doha, told a forum of the University of Chicago's Pearson Institute.

"I believe that the Taliban are quite serious about the negotiations. Many thought that they wouldn't sit across the table from the Afghan government -- that all they wanted was an agreement for the withdrawal of US forces. But they are now sitting across the table."

ME