The United States remains firmly committed to supporting the Afghan people and their government's efforts to achieve peace, security, and prosperity for their country.

Yes, Senator. There are a number of opportunities. There is the Kabul process.

It is vital that parliamentary and presidential elections take place this year and next, respectively, and that they reflect the will of the Afghan people and create an inclusive government that continues to implement these fundamental…

We want to have a stable Afghanistan that is not a base for terrorism.

The reason we are in Afghanistan is because of what happened on September 11th.

the threat to U.S. national security from a withdrawal from Afghanistan was such that we needed to make that commitment.

The timeframe is tight. We--the original schedule for parliamentary elections was this July.

My message to President Ghani, which he was receptive to and embraced, was how important it was that the Afghans consider their record of commitment to democracy.

It is important that these elections go forward.

It is in the Afghans' self-interest to meet those benchmarks. And they, themselves, have adopted those benchmarks, and advocate for them.

We are not going to dictate the terms of either a peace settlement between the Afghan government and the Taliban.