Afghanistan ready for major U.S. troop reduction

— DAVOS, SWITZERLAND Afghanistan is prepared for a major reduction in U.S. forces there, President Ashraf Ghani said Thursday, adding that he had given that message to President Donald Trump, a step toward winding down the costly U.S. military presence as diplomats struggle to finalize a peace deal with the Taliban.

About 12,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, down from a peak of about 100,000 eight years ago. The withdrawal of those forces has been one of the strongest pieces of leverage U.S. negotiators have in talks with the Taliban to end the 18-year war.

A gradual reduction in U.S. troops has taken place since 2018, despite the absence of a settlement emerging from peace negotiations in the Gulf state of Qatar over the past year. Trump declared the talks “dead” in September, just as the two sides were on verge of finalizing an agreement. They later resumed but have since stalled.

Ghani has been a vocal critic of the U.S.’ negotiations with insurgents because the talks have excluded his government. But speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, he said he had told Trump that the Afghan government was ready for a further reduction of 4,000 U.S. troops, onethird of those remaining.

An official close to Ghani said his stance was in keeping with the Afghan government’s long-standing efforts to offer cost savings to a U.S. president who complains about the price of deployments overseas. In return, the official said, Ghani hopes the U.S. will reconsider what he sees as a rushed deal that legitimizes the Taliban and leaves the Washington-backed government to fend for itself.

“We are totally ready for a withdrawal of 4,000 troops anytime the president decides,” Ghani told reporters a day after he met with Trump.

U.S. negotiators have been in Qatar for the past several weeks, trying to kick-start the stalled peace process.

In exchange for returning to the pact they were close to approving in September, they have demanded that the Taliban agree to significantly reduce violence before the deal is signed. They are also seeking a Taliban commitment to open the way for negotiations between insurgents and other Afghans, including Ghani’s government, over power-sharing.

On a visit to Afghanistan in November, Trump caused confusion over U.S. policy toward insurgents, repeating the Afghan government’s demand for an extensive cease-fire before talks could resume. U.S. negotiators had long believed that holding out for a cease-fire before announcing a troop withdrawal was too ambitious and that the Taliban was unlikely to agree to it.

In recent weeks, the Taliban came to the negotiating table with an offer of a brief period of “violence reduction,” a vague term that officials said could amount to holding back attacks on major cities and highways.

Trump seems to have toned down his earlier demand. An official summary of his meeting with Ghani made no mention of a cease-fire, instead citing “the need for a significant and lasting reduction in violence by the Taliban.”