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The President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani has officially asked for clarification from the United States government after President Donald Trump said that he could end the conflict in Afghanistan in a week or 10 days by killing 10 million people and wiping the country “off the face of the earth”. The office of the Afghan President said, “The Afghan nation has not and will never allow any foreign power to determine its fate”. The statement added, “Our cooperation and partnership with the world countries, particularly with the United States, is grounded on common interests and mutual respect. The Afghan government supports the US efforts for ensuring peace in Afghanistan, the government underscores that foreign heads of state cannot determine Afghanistan’s fate in absence of the Afghan leadership”.

Afghanistan called for clarification of Trump’s remarks, which were made following a meeting with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan. Trump took questions from reporters at the White House. The president insisted that he had plans that could end the Afghanistan War within a week or 10 days, which the U.S started in 2001. Trump said, “I could win that war in a week. I just don’t want to kill 10 million people. I have plans on Afghanistan that if I wanted to win that war, Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the earth, it would be gone. It would be over in, literally, in 10 days. And I don’t want to go that route”.

President Trump’s remarks show that he needs to extricate or withdraw the U.S forces from the conflict. He said he was talking with Pakistan to assist in ensuring peace within the country, as part of a plan that would make it easier for the U.S to leave Afghanistan. Trump said, “Basically we’re policemen right now. And we’re not supposed to be policemen. We’ve been there for 19 years, in Afghanistan. It’s ridiculous”. Imran Khan informed reporters that his negotiators were close to completing a peace agreement with the Taliban, which the U.S and the Afghan government have been fighting in the conflict. Khan said, “We hope that in the coming days we will be able to urge the Taliban to speak to the Afghan government and come to a settlement, a political solution”.