Trump Expects Only 4,000 US Troops To Remain In Afghanistan In November

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th August, 2020) The US will reduce its military presence in Afghanistan to about 4,000 troops "very soon," US President Donald Trump said.

"We are largely out of Afghanistan," Trump said in an interview to US news website Axios, aired on Monday.

"We'll be down in a very short period of time to 8,000, then we're going to be down to 4,000, we're negotiating right now," Trump elaborated, without specifying the exact time, but saying that it will happen "very soon."

Asked how many US troops will remain in Afghanistan on election day in November, Trump said that it would be "anywhere from four to five thousand."

On February 29, the United States and the Taliban movement signed a peace deal in Doha, Qatar, stipulating a gradual withdrawal of US troops as well as the beginning of intra-Afghan negotiations and prisoner exchanges.

Last week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Trump's expectation was to get all remaining US troops out of Afghanistan by May, 2021.