Exclusive: Planned $1 Billion U.S. Aid Cut Would Hit Afghan Security Force Funds by Jonathan Landay, Arshad Mohammed and Idrees Ali – Reuters
A planned $1 billion cut in U.S. aid to Afghanistan would come from funds for Afghan security forces, according to three U.S. sources, a step experts said would undercut both Kabul’s ability to fight the Taliban and its leverage to negotiate a peace deal with them.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the reduction on March 23 and threatened to slash the same amount next year to try to force Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his political rival Abdullah Abdullah to end a feud that has helped stall U.S.-led peace-making efforts in Afghanistan.
After nearly 20 years of fighting the Taliban, the United States is looking for a way to extricate itself and to achieve peace between the U.S.-backed government and the militant group, which controls more than 40% of Afghan territory.
Pompeo and other U.S. officials have declined to publicly detail how the cut would be made. The State Department declined to comment on its plans…