The top U.S. military general traveled to Afghanistan Monday for a meeting on the future of U.S. troops there. General Martin Dempsey, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he hopes to see a deal signed by October to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond the official end of the combat mission in 2014. Afghan President Hamid Karzai had halted negotiations with the United States following a dispute over a Taliban political office in Qatar. The office, which opened amid plans for U.S.-backed peace talks, bore a flag and the name used by the Taliban when it ruled Afghanistan. Speaking on Monday, General Dempsey downplayed the idea of a “zero option” that would see the United States withdraw all troops from Afghanistan at the end of next year.

Gen. Martin Dempsey: “I am convinced that we all seek a future — an Afghanistan that is stable, that is unified, that has a constitution that guarantees the freedoms that it guarantees, and that in the case of the United States military in particular, but also the coalition, that we continue to build that relationship with the security forces to make them capable of defending themselves against both internal and external threats.”

On Monday, the same day Dempsey spoke, Afghanistan’s Parliament voted in favor of firing the country’s interior minister over deepening violence and ineffective security. President Hamid Karzai said Interior Minister Mujtaba Patang would remain in power for now while the Afghan Supreme Court considers whether Parliament had legal grounds to dismiss him.