President Donald Trump is expected to nominate William Ruger, a foreign-policy expert who has called for full US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, as ambassador to the country, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
The nomination could be announced as soon as this month.
US State Department earlier this week alerted the Afghan government that Ruger was the pick for the post.
The US currently has about 8,000 troops in Afghanistan and it plans to bring that number down to less than 5,000 by the end of November.
Ruger, a Naval Reserve officer who served for nearly a year in Afghanistan, is vice president for research and policy at the Charles Koch Institute.
In a May column in the National Interest titled “President Trump Is Right on Afghanistan,” Mr. Ruger wrote: “President Trump has correctly concluded that a full and speedy withdrawal of our troops is imperative. Our national interest isn’t served by continuing to wage a futile battle but by exiting it.”
After the US told Afghanistan in September 2019 that it would start withdrawing 5,000 troops from the country, Ruger said in a statement that he was encouraged but that the president “should not allow a withdrawal deal to be bogged down by conditions that aren’t necessary for America’s safety.”
