US needs to stay longer in Afghanistan, says Pompeo

WASHINGTON: President Trump's pick for the secretary of state position, Mike Pompeo has said that Afghanistan remains unstable and the US needs to stay longer to diminish terrorist threat that emanates from there.

During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday, Pompeo was of the view that the US was not prepared to leave Afghanistan "until such time as we can put America in a position where we can greatly diminish the threat to our homeland from terrorism that may emanate there." He advocated a "continued role in Afghanistan," saying that he presented a plan last summer to president about staying in Afghanistan.

Mike Pompeo is director CIA, and has been nominated by President Trump to lead the Department of State. The confirmation hearing mostly discussed topics including North Korea, Iran, Russia and then China.

At times, Mike Pompeo too heat from senators over his past comments about Muslims in the United States along with his position on Afghanistan. He was also asked if it was in the national security interest of the United States to unilaterally withdraw from the Iran deal.

The secretary-nominated believed that there has to be a strategy placed to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. The ranking member of the committee, Senator Bob Menendez quoted Trump that 'getting along with Russia is a good thing."

He then added, "Yesterday, he tweeted 'our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been; there's no reason for this.' And he indicated he would like to help Russia with its economy. What behaviour, if any, has the Kremlin shown that indicates it wants to 'get along' with the United States or our allies?" he asked. Director Pompeo declined to answer the question. Responding to another query he said, "We need to make sure that Putin doesn’t succeed in what he believes his ultimate goal is."

In his prepared remarks for the hearing, Pompeo said that the issues surrounding Iran’s proliferation threat were real and the US with its allies must deal with the long-term risk that its capability presents.

"We cannot let the nuclear file prevent us from acting against Iran’s cyber efforts or its attempts to provide missiles to the Houthis to attack Saudi Arabia and Americans who travel there. Iran’s activities in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon threaten the very existence of Israel, and the global reach of Hezbollah threatens us right here in the homeland," he said in his statement adding, "President Trump is prepared to work with our partners to revise the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to fix its most egregious flaws."

Regarding North Korea, Pompeo said that the US would need to move past diplomacy. He said if it obtained a nuclear weapons arsenal capable of striking the US and diplomatic tools failed, the Pentagon would give Trump additional options. He insisted that he would advocate unrelenting diplomacy in achieving the Trump foreign policy goals as war was the last resort.