‘How Many More Decades Are You Willing To Fight?’: Trump Cancels Talks With Taliban After Kabul Blast

In a sudden move, United States President Donald Trump cancelled the peace-talks with Taliban on Saturday (7 September), in the aftermath of the Kabul blast which claimed lives of one US soldier and 11 other.

In a series of tweets, Trump revealed that major Taliban leaders were headed to Camp David, US for a secret meeting with the president. Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani was also supposed to arrive separately. But the terrorist attack caused a change of plans.

Trump said, “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.”

The ISI-backed Taliban has been continuing its attacks in Afghanistan even as peace negotiations continue. But the death of a US soldier in the recent Kabul blast was what it took for the Trump to finally say ‘enough’.

“What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position? They didn’t. They only made it worse,” said Trump in a tweet.

“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?” he added.

In response, Taliban stated on Sunday that the US decision to end talks would have consequences only for the US.

“More than anyone else, the loss will be for the United States- their standing will be hurt, their anti-peace position will be clear to the world, their human and treasury loss will increase, and their political actions will come across as unstable,” Taliban said in a statement.

Trump also received criticism for inviting the Islamist group to Camp David that too in the week leading up to the anniversary of 9/11, and hashtag TalibanTrump was the topping trend on Twitter as analysts tried to make sense of the US president’s outreach and then tirade against Taliban.