KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan government asked for clarification on Tuesday after President Donald Trump said he could win the 18-year war in 10 days but that “Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the earth.”

Trump made the remarks Monday while meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, whose help he seeks in negotiating a peace deal with the Taliban that would also see U.S. forces withdraw from Afghanistan.

“I could win that war in a week. I just don’t want to kill 10 million people,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “If I wanted to win that war, Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the earth. It would be gone. It would be over, literally, in 10 days.”

“I don’t want to go that route,” Trump added.

Trump says he has a plan to win the Afghanistan war in 10 days President Trump said he would win the war in Afghanistan in 10 days, and at the cost of 10 million lives.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s office issued a statement Tuesday asking for clarification, saying Afghanistan will never “allow any foreign power to determine its fate.”

The statement said cooperation and partnership with the U.S. is based on common interests and mutual respect.

The Taliban issued a statement in which they welcomed Trump’s remarks that the U.S. should not play the role of a police officer in Afghanistan. But they said his claim that he could wipe out the country is “irresponsible and we condemn it in the strongest terms.”

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Washington’s peace envoy aims for Sept. 1 agreement on troop withdrawal after all-Afghan conference All-Afghan talks that brought together Afghanistan’s warring sides ended Tuesday with a statement that appeared to push the country a step closer to peace, by laying down the outlines of a roadmap for the country’s future and ending nearly 18 years of war.

The Taliban said the dream of winning a military victory in Afghanistan was “taken to the grave” by previous empires, such as the Mongols, the British and the Soviet Union. “On the contrary, their Empires were wiped off the face of this earth but the Afghan nation proudly endured and will continue to endure, live and remain proud, Allah willing.”