U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during an unannounced trip to Afghanistan Tuesday "the hour has come for peace" in the war-torn country.
Pompeo met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to discuss ongoing peace talks between the U.S. and the Taliban.
Pompeo told reporters at the U.S. embassy in Kabul the two men "agree that peace is our highest priority and that Afghanistan must never again serve as a platform for international terrorism."
Pompeo stopped in Afghanistan on his way to New Dehli for meetings with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other officials. The stopover came before the seventh round of peace talks between U.S. and Taliban officials aimed at ending the the 18-year-old war. They are scheduled to resume on June 29 in the Qatari capital of Doha.
The U.S., with British support, began attacking Taliban forces in 2001 in response to terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001.
State Department correspondent Nike Ching contributed to this report.
