Getting close on Afghanistan strategy: Trump

Terming Afghanistan as 'a mess' that he took over from the previous administration, U.S. President Donald Trump said that his administration is getting close to a decision on an updated strategy for the war in Afghanistan.

"We're getting close. We're getting very close, It's a very big decision for me. I took over a mess and we're going to make it a lot less messy," Trump said at his club in New Jersey on Thursday.

"It's been the America's longest war of 17 years in Afghanistan," Trump said after meeting with Vice President Mike Pence, national security adviser H.R. McMaster and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

Defense Secretary James Mattis said the administration was "pretty close" to a decision but weren't "going to meet some timeline if we are not ready."

National security adviser H.R. has recommended to increase the number of U.S. troops in war-ravaged Afghanistan to bolster American forces in the country, CNN reported.

Trump's administration is balancing future action in Afghanistan with the President's past statements, including promises during the campaign to get the United States out of foreign conflicts.

"We have wasted an enormous amount of blood and treasure in Afghanistan," Trump tweeted in 2013. "Their government has zero appreciation. Let's get out!"

Meanwhile, additional U.S. Marines have been dispatched to Afghanistan to strengthen its forces in the violent Helmand province where Taliban has increased their attacks.

Pentagon decision of deploying more troops in Afghanistan comes when recently the Afghan Security and Defense Forces have successfully repelled the multiple attacks of Taliban fighters who targeted a bridge in the district and to create a hurdle to the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Pipeline (TAPI) pipeline project in Gereshk district in the southern Helmand province in which over 40 Taliban insurgents and four soldiers were killed.

U.S. National Security Adviser Gen H.R. McMaster conveyed the stern message of President Donald Trump to Pakistan to change its 'paradoxical' policy of supporting the Taliban, Haqqani network and other militants who are causing the country great losses.

The U.S. officials have often accused Pakistan of helping the militants, a charge Islamabad vehemently denies, but this marks the first time that the allegation has been attributed to President Trump..