Afghans welcome cancellation of talks
Afghan officials, analysts and citizens yesterday cautiously welcomed President Donald Trump’s announcement that he was calling off the troubled USTaliban peace talks aimed at ending the 18-year conflict.
After weeks of mounting uncertainty and suspicion in Afghanistan, with insurgent violence raging across the country even as a bilateral deal neared, Trump’s surprising tweets on Sunday seemed to burst the pentup tension across Afghan society and offer a moment of relief – even as it created new fears over what would come next.
The Taliban, for their part, waited all day before issuing a coolly worded statement saying they had been ready to sign a peace agreement with the United States, but Trump’s impatience had sabotaged the process and the insurgents would now continue their ‘‘jihad’’ against foreign ‘‘occupation.’’
The days before Trump’s bombshell were filled with conflicting signals from Taliban and US leaders. While US negotiators said a deal was imminent, Taliban attacks intensified. Outside the negotiations, an array of US politicians, military leaders and diplomats warned that a hasty deal and troop pullout could lead to chaos and even civil war.
Afghans yesterday expressed measured relief.
‘‘There is definitely a silver lining to this,’’ said Haroun Mir, an analyst based in Kabul. ‘‘There was total confusion before. Everyone was afraid the US would sign a cease-fire but the Taliban would continue their war against the Afghan government and people. ‘‘Now President Trump has personally rectified this with his own tweet.’’
Few Afghans had trusted the closed-door negotiations between the United States and the Taliban. Many expressed fears that the Trump administration would make too many concessions to the insurgents, giving them free rein to reimpose extreme Islamic rule and sacrificing gains in rights and freedoms under democratic rule.
President Ashraf Ghani, who had fumed for months about being excluded from the talks, prepared to fly to Washington this weekend, without public explanation. Aides said on Saturday that the trip had been postponed.
In his tweets on Sunday, Trump said he was cancelling secret meetings planned with Taliban leaders and Ghani at Camp David after the most recent Taliban attack, a bombing on Friday near the US Embassy in Kabul that killed a US service member, 10 Afghans and a Romanian soldier. It was not clear whether Taliban leaders had agreed to participate or not. In the statement they made no mention of meetings.
A spokesman for Ghani declined to say what he had planned to do in Washington beyond expressing his concerns about the talks.
The Ghani government strongly welcomed Trump’s announcement, saying it coincided with official worries here that the Taliban were manipulating the peace process. Officials reiterated Ghani’s longstanding
insistence that only direct bilateral talks between Afghan and Taliban leaders could bring about an enduring and substantive settlement.
Ghani’s chief spokesman said Trump’s decision ‘‘showed he has a proper understanding of the situation and sees that the Taliban are not committed to peace.’’ Spokesman Sediq Sediqqi thanked the United States for its efforts, but said now the Taliban must ‘‘stop killing Afghans and agree to negotiate directly with the Afghan government. We have
always been behind a meaningful peace process and we will always be the implementer of that process.’’
Sediqqi also said direct talks among Afghans could not begin any time soon because of ongoing attacks.
‘‘We do not have conditions for talks, but peace has conditions,’’ he said. ‘‘How is it possible to sit in talks and continue the violence?’’ He said the Taliban had been enjoying a ‘‘honeymoon’’ in Qatar, the site of the negotiations, while ‘‘cheating Afghanistan and the world. This needs to come to an end.’’
It was unclear what impact Trump’s actions would have on presidential elections scheduled for September 28. Until now, US officials were pressing for the peace talks to finish in time to hold Afghan-Taliban talks before the vote. Many Afghans had called for the election to be postponed, fearing it could disrupt the peace process. But Sediqqi said yesterday it would be held on schedule. Ghani has been running hard for reelection despite Taliban threats to attack the polls.
‘‘We do not have conditions for talks, but peace has conditions. How is it possible to sit in talks and continue the violence?’’ Sediq Sediqqi, Afghan government spokesman