The Presidential Palace on Friday welcomed Resolute Support Commander General John Nicholson’s call for more U.S soldiers to Afghanistan.
 
Nicholson said on Thursday night that the Afghan war is deadlocked and in order to break this, thousands of new U.S and NATO soldiers should be deployed to Afghanistan.
 
Deputy spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani, Shahhussain Murtazawi said on Friday that Ghani and U.S President Donald Trump had also spoken on the phone – the second since he took power. According to Murtazawi, they discussed ways to fight terrorists.
 
Murtazawi said Kabul and Washington are also making plans for the two presidents to meet face-to-face in the near future. 
 
“Ghani and Trump will meet each other in the near future and will discuss fighting terrorism,” he said.
 
Currently the U.S and NATO troops total almost 14,000 in the country but Nicholson said more troops should be deployed to Afghanistan.
 
“We’re very concerned about the level of losses; the recurrent recruitment replaces the level of losses that they're experiencing. However, it does not allow them to get to their full authorized strength which they are below. In train advise and assist mission however, we have a shortfall of a few thousand,” he said.
 
Nicholson also said the existence of safe havens for insurgents in Pakistan is a big threat for U.S interests and in order to eliminate insurgents and convince Islamabad to fight the terrorists, the U.S-Pakistan ties need to be reviewed.
 
“I do remain concerned about the influence of certain external actors particularly Pakistan, Russia and Iran who continue to legitimize and support the Taliban and undermine the Afghan government's efforts to create a stable Afghanistan. Our complex relationship with Pakistan is best assessed through a holistic review,” Nicholson added.