India, others must fight terrorists in Afghanistan: Trump

By IANS | Published: August 22, 2019 01:08 PM2019-08-22T13:08:05+5:302019-08-22T13:20:11+5:30

US President Donald Trump has said that countries like India, Pakistan, Iran, Russia and Turkey would have to fight against terrorists in Afghanistan at some point of time, lamenting that Washington was the "only one fighting against terrorism" in the war-torn nation.

India, others must fight terrorists in Afghanistan: Trump | India, others must fight terrorists in Afghanistan: Trump

India, others must fight terrorists in Afghanistan: Trump

His comments came a day after he indicated that complete withdrawal of the US forces from Afghanistan won't happen until Washington ensures that Taliban does not regain control.

Responding to a question on the reemergence of the Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan, Trump told the reporters at the White House on Wednesday: "At a certain point Russia, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey they are going to have to fight their battles too.

"We wiped out the caliphate 100 per cent. I did it in record time but at a certain point all of these other countries where ISIS is around they have been decimated by the way, badly decimated."

The US President said that despite being 7,000 miles away, only the US is fighting the terrorists in Afghanistan whereas India and Pakistan being right next door are fighting it "very little".

"We haven't been hearing much about IS. We took the caliphate 100 per cent. When I took it at 98 per cent I said all right, maybe we go home now, let these other countries in. Everyone went crazy. They said do 100 per cent. They said it was going to take a year. It took me a month and they are gone," he said.

Trump also said that the US is holding thousands of IS fighters and now Europe has to take them.

"We beat them. We captured them. We've got thousands of them and now as usual our allies say, no, we don't want them even though they came from France and Germany and other places.

"So we're going to tell them and we have already told them take these prisoners that we've captured because the US is not going to put them in Guantanamo for the next 50 years and pay for it," Trump said.

( With inputs from IANS )

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