President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah signed a power-sharing agreement. Iran’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, along with counterparts from China, Russia and Pakistan, issued a joint communique welcoming the agreement, while maintaining that they “support the process of peace and reconciliation under the ownership and guidance of Afghanistan, and believe that inclusive intra-Afghan negotiations will be the only way for national reconciliation and an immediate end to the prolonged disputes”. The four countries also urged “foreign forces to withdraw in an orderly and responsible manner, in such a way that the situation in Afghanistan would experience a trouble-free transition”. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also congratulated Ghani and Abdullah and “noted that he regretted the time lost during the political impasse”. Pompeo further “reiterated that the priority for the U.S. remains a political settlement to end the conflict”.