WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump said he canceled a secret weekend meeting at Camp David with Taliban and Afghanistan leaders after a bombing in the past week in Kabul that killed 12 people, including an American soldier, and has called off peace negotiations with the insurgent group.
Trump’s tweet Saturday evening was surprising because it would mean that the President was ready to host members of the Taliban at the presidential retreat in Maryland just days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. More than 2,400 US troops have been killed since the US invaded Afghanistan to go after the Taliban, which were harboring al-Qaida leaders responsible for 9/11.
Canceling the talks also goes against Trump’s pledge to withdraw the remaining 13,000 to 14,000 US troops from Afghanistan and end US involvement in a conflict that is closing in on 18 years.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the Trump administration’s diplomat talking to the Taliban leaders for months, said recently that he was on the “threshold” of an agreement with the Taliban aimed at ending America’s longest war.
The President, however, has been under pressure from the Afghan government and some US lawmakers, including Trump supporter Sen. Lindsey Graham (Republican, South Carolina), who mistrust the Taliban and think it’s too early to withdraw American forces.
“Unbeknownst to almost everyone, the major Taliban leaders and, separately, the President of Afghanistan, were going to secretly meet with me at Camp David on Sunday,” Trump tweeted.
“They were coming to the United States tonight. Unfortunately, in order to build false leverage, they admitted to an attack in Kabul that killed one of our great great soldiers, and 11 other people. I immediately cancelled the meeting and called off peace negotiations,” he wrote.
On Thursday, a Taliban car bomb exploded and killed an American soldier , a Romanian service member, and 10 civilians in a busy diplomatic area near the US Embassy in Kabul. The bombing was one of many attacks by the Taliban in recent days during US-Taliban talks.
The Defense Department says Sgt. 1st Class Elis A. Barreto Ortiz, 34, from Morovis, Puerto Rico, was killed in action when the explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was the fourth US service member killed in the past two weeks in Afghanistan.
