Kabul [Afghanistan], Apr. 17 : U.S. President Donald Trump's National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R McMaster is adamant about defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan. He said those members of the Taliban who refuse to join the peace process will be defeated on the battleground.
"The Taliban must be defeated as well. They can be defeated in a number of ways. For those that are reconcilable, who are now willing to join their Afghan brothers to strengthen the Afghan state, to end the violence, to be part of the political process, I think your president and the chief executive officer they will welcome them back in.
So it is their choice now," Tolo News quoted Lt. Gen. McMaster, as saying in an interview on Sunday. Speaking about the U.S. bombing on ISIS militants in Nangarhar, Lt. Gen. McMaster said that country would not tolerate the existence of such groups. Asserting that terror groups like ISIS and Taliban are a threat to all civilized people, Lt. Gen. McMaster stressed on defeating all such groups. "Well it is not just the bomb (Thursday's MOAB), but it is really what our soldiers are doing every day alongside courageous Afghan soldiers, fighting Daesh, ensuring that these people who victimized women, who shoot people in hospital beds, we cannot tolerate the existence of that kind of an organization," he said.
Commenting on Pakistan's interference in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. McMaster said that Islamabad should seek its interests in Afghanistan or any other country through political channels and not through violence.
"As all of us have hoped for many many years, we have hoped that Pakistani leaders will understand that it is in their interest to go after these groups less selectively than they have in the past and the best way to pursue their interest in Afghanistan and elsewhere is through diplomacy not through the use of proxies that engage in violence," he said.
Lt. Gen. McMaster, who is on his maiden visit to Kabul after being elected as President Donald Trump's National Security Advisor, will next visit Pakistan and India to assess the situation in the two countries and then report back to the White House.
Source: ANI
