Pompeo is set to sit down with chief Taliban negotiator Mullah Baradar and other officials from the militant group on Monday in order “to press the Taliban to continue to comply with the agreement signed last month,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.

While the US and Taliban reached an agreement last month to begin drawing down American forces in exchange for a reduction in attacks, the absence of a separate deal between the militant group — which controls more than half of Afghanistan — and President Ashraf Ghani’s government has been a sticking point. The two sides clashed over the release of prisoners, with Kabul demanding guarantees the Taliban detainees would not return to the battlefield once released.

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