Talks with the Taliban’s major leaders at the presidential compound in Camp David, Maryland were abruptly called off, and now US Secretary of State and former CIA chief Mike Pompeo said talks are dead “for the time being”. Trump called off talks after the Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack in Kabul which claimed the lives of 12 people including an American soldier. The US President will see this as a major blow given his eagerness to withdraw troops from the violence- torn state.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, criticized Trump for calling off the dialogue and said U.S. forces have been pounding Afghanistan with attacks at the same time.
“This will lead to more losses to the U.S. Its credibility will be affected, its anti-peace stance will be exposed to the world, losses to lives and assets will increase.”
American diplomats have been talking with Taliban representatives for months about a plan to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops in exchange for security guarantees by the Taliban.
Pompeo told Fox News on Sunday that the President personally intervened to halt talks but also said he was still keen to resolve the Afghan issue.
He said: “I want to talk to (President) Ashraf Ghani. I want to talk to these Taliban negotiators. I want to look them in the eye. I want to see if we can get to the final outcome we needed”.
The US refused to reduce military support in Afghanistan until the Taliban abided by ‘significant commitments’ in the peace talks.
“President Trump made clear we’re not just going to withdraw because there’s a timeline. We’re only going to reduce our forces when certain conditions are met” Pompeo said to CNN.
There are currently 14,000 U.S. forces as well as thousands of other NATO troops in the country, 18 years after its invasion by a U.S.-led coalition following the Sept. 11, 2001, Saudi al Qaeda attacks on the United States.
Britain fought with the US in Afghanistan for 13 years from 2001 to 2014 when troops were finally brought back following little progress.