The world was stunned to learn over the weekend that President Donald Trump had backed out of previously unannounced peace talks with the Taliban to end the lengthy war in Afghanistan.
The Washington Examiner reports that Trump chose to walk away from secret negotiations with the group after it took credit for a recent attack in the Afghan capital of Kabul that left at least 12 dead, including one U.S. soldier.
False leverage
The president took to social media on Saturday to reveal that he’d canceled the top-secret summit, which was set to take place at Camp David.
In a three-tweet thread on Twitter, Trump wrote: “Unbeknownst to almost everyone, the major Taliban leaders and, separately, the President of Afghanistan [Ashraf Ghani], were going to secretly meet with me at Camp David on Sunday. They were coming to the United States tonight.”
He went on to say that the Taliban had hoped to “build false leverage” when “they admitted to…an attack in Kabul that killed one of our great great soldiers, and 11 other people. I immediately [canceled] the meeting and called off peace negotiations. What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position?”
Trump said the Taliban had, in fact, only made their situation worse. “If they cannot agree to a ceasefire during these very important peace talks, and would even kill 12 innocent people, then they probably don’t have the power to negotiate a meaningful agreement anyway. How many more decades are they willing to fight?” the president asked.
Deadly attack
The Taliban’s deadly attack came in the form of a car bomb, which exploded Thursday at a security checkpoint near the NATO headquarters and U.S. Embassy in Kabul, according to the Examiner.
One of the dozen known fatalities from the massive blast was U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Elis Angel Barreto Ortiz, a 34-year-old from Puerto Rico, according to the U.S. Defense Department. Another soldier from Romania was also killed by the explosion, as well as two NATO service members.
The Taliban took full credit for the attack, and admitted that the purpose of the bombing was to target “foreign occupiers.”
Looking ahead
The deadly blast was just the latest in a series of attacks that have been launched by the Taliban even as negotiations over a potential truce and peace deal to end the war were underway with U.S. officials.
For his part, President Trump has made it clear that he would prefer to end the Afghanistan War and bring home most — if not all — U.S. and allied forces currently deployed in the war-torn nation.
However, despite good faith efforts from Trump and his administration to find agreeable terms for all sides, the Taliban has proven that they have little interest in halting their bloody campaign to reseize control of Afghanistan. Where the negotiations go from here, nobody can say for sure.
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