Published 17:40 IST, September 9th 2019
US President Trump cancels peace talks; Taliban says 'unbelievable'
Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen has branded US President Trump's decision to call off peace talks 'unbelievable'; Pompeo has said deal is still in progress
On September 8, US President Donald Trump decided to call off peace talks with the Taliban. The Taliban has called his decision ‘unbelievable’. They further went on to state that his 'disappointing' tweets 'damaged his credibility'.
Suhail Shaheen, the spokesperson for the Taliban's political office located in Doha, Qatar tweeted in Arabic saying that the leaders of both the delegations received the text regarding the finalization of the agreement with the US, and the same was sent to Qatar. He further added that everyone was happy with the agreement and Qatar agreed to announce the deal.
Suhail Shaheen also said, “However, the disappointing tweets by President Trump are unbelievable and damaged his credibility,"
No Peace talks
US President Donald Trump on September 7, declared that the US will no longer hold peace negotiation talks with the Taliban. He also cancelled a “secret meeting” with the representatives of the group that was supposed to happen at Camp David after the Taliban claimed responsibility fir the Kabul terror attack, which took away 12 lives. Those who died in the attacks also included an American soldier.
Pompeo says, "deal is in progress"
Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State had said on Sunday that the deal is still in progress as the Administration is eager to fulfill the same. However, Pompeo has added they will not go ahead until Taliban delivers on its commitments. This came despite Trump’s decision to call off the deal.
The US has been consulting with the Taliban over the most recent couple of months at Doha regardless of the gathering's hesitance to hold direct converses with the Afghan government, which it sees as a US pawn. Whereas the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad said earlier this week that the Trump administration had arrived at an arrangement an "in principle" to pull back more than 5,000 troops from Afghanistan in return for assurances by the Taliban.
Pompeo on Taliban peace talks
Pompeo said the Trump administration has called back envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who was deployed to negotiate with Taliban leaders for months in Qatar. He further said that it depends on the insurgent group on whether talks would resume or not. While talking to US media, Pompeo said, "We (the US and the Taliban) have been fighting and talking in a way that America often doesn't do. It's what's driven us to be able to have the success at the negotiating table that we were beginning to have. But we finally reached a point where we were close (to a deal)."
Updated 20:38 IST, September 9th 2019