Former US ambassadors to Afghanistan on Tuesday warned against a major troop withdrawal without a comprehensive peace accord as an envoy said he had sealed a draft deal with the Taliban. The nine former ambassadors or senior officials - who served under presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump - cautioned against any action that would undercut the government in Kabul.

"A major withdrawal of US forces should follow, not come in advance, of (a) real peace agreement," the former envoys, including James Dobbins, John Negroponte and Ryan Crocker, said in a joint statement. "The initial US drawdown should not go so far or so fast that the Taliban believe that they can achieve military victory. In that case, they will not make compromises for peace with other Afghan political forces," they wrote in the statement released by the Atlantic Council think tank.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019