Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, has asked the warring Afghan sides to “step back” and “stand down” to reduce the violence level in the country, terming it “unacceptably high.” 

Pompeo’s comment came during an annual security dialogue, the IISS Manama Security Dialogue on Friday. “I made clear to them that the violence levels can’t continue while these negotiations go on and it won’t work,” Pompeo said as quoted in a Reuters report.

Meanwhile, the Taliban’s spokesperson Dr. Muhammad Naeem also said on Friday that the ceasefire will be one of the agendas in intra-Afghan talks. Just days back, the Taliban and the Afghan government agreed on starting the intra-Afghan negotiation after finalizing the procedural framework in the first phase of interactions. 

Afghan leaders also reiterated their demand for an immediate ceasefire.

Ever since the Taliban and the Afghan negotiating teams’ contact groups started the discussion in Doha, Qatar, the violence all across the country has increased. The insurgent group has mounted several attacks on the Afghan security forces.
 
A recent quarterly report by the SIGAR also said that the violence has gone up by 50 percent in the last quarter.