Asked at a Brookings Institute webinar on Monday if the US might change its stance on Afghanistan, given the Taliban's failure to reduce violence following the US-Taliban deal, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said that the ultimate goal remains to keep Afghanistan from becoming a safe haven for terrorists and that a political solution--via the planned intra-Afghan talks--is still the path forward for the US.

Esper said the Taliban have not reduced violence; however, they have not attacked US targets nor targeted large metropolitan areas since the US-Taliban agreement.

He described the path towards the intra-Afghan negotiations as "long and winding and bumpy and behind schedule," but affirmed that since the war could not be won on the battlefield, a political settlement must be sought, saying "we have to have a political solution for this."

In this episode of the program, host Karim Amini discusses the topic with Khan Agha Rezaee, MP and Zia Bomia, journalist.