WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says U.S. talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan are “dead” after they collapsed last week.
Asked Monday about the talks, Trump replied: “They’re dead. They’re dead. As far as I’m concerned, they’re dead.”
U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad had been in negotiations for nearly a year with the Taliban’s political wing in Doha, Qatar. What had seemed like an imminent deal to end America’s longest war unraveled at the last minute. Trump tweeted Saturday night that he had canceled his planned meeting with the Taliban and Afghan leaders at Camp David this past weekend.
The insurgents are now promising more bloodshed. The Afghan government remains mostly on the sidelines of the U.S. peace effort. And as Trump’s reelection campaign heats up, his quest to withdraw the remaining 14,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan remains unfulfilled – so far.
(Copyright 2019, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
