Secretary of State Mike PompeoMichael (Mike) Richard PompeoUS embassy in Sri Lanka warns against visiting places of worship Kim Jong Un’s ‘long yet necessary road’ toward reaffirming alliances The Hill’s Morning Report – Trump tells House investigators ‘no’ MORE is accelerating plans to downsize the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan by up to half, Reuters reported Thursday.
Pompeo’s order to cut the U.S.’s largest diplomatic mission in Kabul comes roughly a year earlier than expected amidst faltering talks with the Taliban.
The drawdown “is starting as soon as May 31 and they want to have it done by September,” one congressional aide told Reuters.
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The State Department has reportedly been considering cutting embassy staff in Afghan capital for some time.
The heavily fortified compound has about 1,500 staff members with 700 beds for staff.
A U.S. official told Reuters that cuts should be seen as part of a global redistribution of U.S. diplomats required by the Trump administration’s national security strategy shift toward Russia and China.
Some are worried that the reduction could strain relations with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government.
Ghani “would see this as another step in a betrayal,” Thomas Lynch, a U.S. National Defense University fellow focused on Afghanistan and former adviser to the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Reuters.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill on plans for the embassy in Kabul.