US President Donald Trump's defence secretary said bad weather had forced him to scrap a visit to Afghanistan on Sunday but added that he was reviewing the next steps in the war after discussions with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the top US commander.
"We're putting our thoughts together now," Defence Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters in Abu Dhabi during his debut trip to the Middle East.
US General John Nicholson, the commander of US and international troops in Afghanistan, said this month the Nato-led force in Afghanistan had enough troops to carry out counterterrorism missions but had "a shortfall of a few thousand" for its major role of advising Afghan security forces.
Mattis said he spoke for several hours on Sunday via video-link with Nicholson, but did not disclose whether he was in favour of sending more US forces there. Mattis also said he spoke with Ghani "at length" before leaving Munich, Germany, on Saturday.
So far, Trump has offered little clarity about whether he will approve more forces for Afghanistan, where some 8,400 US troops remain more than 15 years after the Islamist Taliban government was toppled.
"He's waiting for my assessment and the assessment from the intelligence community and he's open to my advice on it," Mattis said. "But first of all I've got to formulate where I stand."
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.