India and others nations at some point would have to fight against terrorists in Afghanistan: Trump

PTI, Aug 22, 2019, 9:24 AM IST

Washington: Countries like India, Iran, Russia and Turkey would have to fight against terrorists in Afghanistan at some point of time, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, ruing that the job against terrorist is being done only by the United States some 7,000 miles away.

Trump said that other nations currently are making very less efforts against the terrorists in Afghanistan.

“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, Trump told reporters at the White House while responding to a question on the reemergence of ISIS in Afghanistan.

“All of these countries are going to have to fight them because do we want to stay there for another 19 years? I don’t think so. So, at a certain point other countries and that includes Russia and it includes Iran and Turkey and Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan and India, he said.

Trump’s comments came a day after he indicated that the US forces will not completely withdraw from the war-torn Afghanistan and America will have “somebody there” to make sure that Taliban does not regain control.

Trump said that the US was fighting the terrorists in Afghanistan despite being 7,000 miles away while India and Pakistan were not doing so even after being next door.

“Look, India is right there. They are not fighting it. We are fighting it. Pakistan is right next door. They are fighting it very little. Very, very little. It’s not fair. The United States is 7,000 miles away, Trump said.

Trump said that the US under him has decimated ISIS.

“We haven’t been hearing much about ISIS. 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.

Asserting that the caliphate is gone, he said the US is holding thousands of ISIS fighters right now and Europe has to take them.

And if Europe doesn’t take them, Trump said, he will have no choice but to release them into the countries from which they came which is Germany and France.

“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 United States is not going to put them in Guantanamo for the next 50 years and pay for it, Trump said.