US Secretary of Defense Mark Esber announced that his country reached during the ongoing negotiations with the Taliban a temporary week-long truce in Afghanistan, while US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke of "significant progress" in negotiations with the movement.

The Esper announcement came during a meeting of defense ministers of NATO members today, confirming that the United States and the Taliban discussed a proposal to reduce violence for a week.

"We have always said that the best solution - if not the only one - in Afghanistan is the political solution ... We have made progress on this level, and we will soon provide additional information on the subject ... I hope so."

"We believe that seven days are good today, but in any case our approach to this path will be based on conditions ... I repeat: conditions," he added.

He pointed out that "the more we progress, there will be an ongoing evaluation process", repeating "if we move forward."

"We support the efforts of the United States in negotiations with the Taliban," said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. But he cautioned, "The Taliban must demonstrate a willingness and a real ability to reduce violence."

On the other hand, Reuters news agency quoted Pompeo as saying that his country has made real progress during the past days in its negotiations with the Taliban, and that President Donald Trump agreed to move forward with the negotiations.

Pompeo added that negotiations with the Taliban are thorny, and he has not yet reached the point of achieving peace in Afghanistan, he said.

The US Secretary of State indicated that his country wants to see a significant reduction in the level of violence in Afghanistan, before the start of what it called serious negotiations among all Afghans.

Commenting on progress in the negotiations, Trump said, "We will know within two weeks if we will reach an agreement with the Taliban."

And Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced on Wednesday that Pompeo had informed him of "significant developments" in negotiations with the Taliban.

The New York Times quoted Afghan and US officials as saying that Trump has given his conditional agreement to conclude an agreement with the Taliban to begin withdrawing US forces.

The agreement would commit Taliban fighters to reduce their attacks in Afghanistan, and would obligate the United States to reduce its forces there. This would pave the way for negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government on a peace deal to end America's longest war.

The US delegation led by Special Envoy for Reconciliation in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, has been negotiating with the Taliban mainly in Qatar since late 2018. In September, Trump suddenly suspended talks in response to a suicide bombing in Kabul that killed an American soldier.

The Taliban control or compete to control half of the area of ​​Afghanistan, which is more than ever since the movement was toppled in 2001.

The United States now has about 13,000 out of 23,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, a significant drop from the largest number of 100,000 in 2011.