US President Donald Trump has said the United States will maintain its military presence in Afghanistan even after reaching an agreement with the Taliban, which demands the withdrawal of all foreign troops.
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Trump said his administration was working to reduce its military forces in Afghanistan to 8,600 from about 15,000 now.
He stressed that his country would maintain a permanent military and intelligence presence there even if an agreement was signed with the Taliban to end the 18-year war, pointing out that the goal of keeping US troops in Afghanistan is to provide high-level intelligence.
Trump said that there are currently 15 thousand US troops in Afghanistan, warning that if the United States under a new attack originating from this country will return to it more strongly than ever.
The US president's comments come as there are frequent reports of an agreement between Washington and the Taliban in Qatar.
The spokesman for the political bureau of the Taliban Suhail Shahin told the island on the sidelines of a new round of negotiations in Doha that the movement and the US delegation is about to reach an agreement.
He added that the transition will be agreed upon after signing an agreement with the United States and entering into an Afghan-Afghan dialogue.
The two sides in Doha on Friday finalized a draft agreement that is expected to outline the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and represents a guarantee by the Taliban to fight "terrorist groups", a demand Washington stresses the need to abide by in return for withdrawal.