Pompeo defends Taliban invite
Secretary of state: Camp David talks dead
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s now-scuttled plan to host members of the Taliban leadership and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at Camp David amid a backlash from members of both parties.
Pompeo argued on the morning news shows that Trump was willing to take a political risk to strike a deal on reducing U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan. But he conceded that the talks are dead “for the time being” and said the United States has recalled Zalmay Khalilzad, the chief U.S. negotiator in the process.
“If you’re going to negotiate peace, you often have to deal with some pretty bad actors,” Pompeo said on ABC News’ “This Week.” “I know the history, too, at Camp David, and indeed President Trump reflected on that. Some pretty bad
actors have traveled through that place throughout recorded history.”
The canceled summit would have taken place just ahead of the 18th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which led to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 Republican in the House, was among those who had criticized Trump over the move to invite the Taliban to the presidential retreat in Maryland.
“Camp David is where America’s leaders met to plan our response after al-Qaida, supported by the Taliban, killed 3000 Americans on 9/11,” she said on Twitter. “No member of the Taliban should set foot there. Ever.”
For months, Khalilzad had been shuttling between the capitals of Afghanistan and Qatar to meet with Taliban leaders and Afghan officials in an effort to forge a peace deal.
Last week, he announced that a deal had been reached “in principle” under which the United States would partially withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in exchange for the Taliban renouncing al-Qaida, which had orchestrated the 2001 attacks.
U.S. officials expected the tentative agreement to advance a cease-fire and talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government. But after a spate of attacks by the Taliban, including one that killed a U.S. soldier, further talks over ending the 18-year conflict began to waver.
In what appeared to be a last-minute scramble to save the negotiations, Khalilzad traveled to Qatar on Thursday for meetings with Taliban officials after U.S. officials had said negotiations with the militant group had ended.
In his tweets Saturday, Trump said he “called off peace negotiations” after the Taliban took responsibility for an attack in Kabul “that killed one of our great soldiers, and 11 other people.”
“What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position?” Trump tweeted. “They didn’t, they only made it worse!”
Pompeo said on ABC News that U.S. officials had made “enormous progress over the last month” in negotiations with the Taliban.
“We finally reached a point where we were close. We’d made real progress. And then the Taliban failed to live up to a series of commitments that they had made. And when that happened, Trump said, ‘I’m not going to take that deal,’ ” Pompeo said.
The Taliban said Trump’s decision to cancel the meeting on a “finalized” deal to end America’s longest war would “damage the credibility” of the U.S., but they believe the U.S. will return to negotiations.
“Both sides were preparing for the announcement and signing of the agreement,” the insurgent group said in a statement, saying they had been invited in late August but wanted to wait until the deal’s signing. Now, “we will continue the ongoing jihad (against foreign occupation) and we firmly believe in the ultimate victory.”
Trump’s move puzzled observers, who pointed out that the Taliban, U.S. and Afghan forces have increased fighting in recent months to strengthen their position in the talks. Civilians have suffered more than anyone in what was the world’s deadliest war in 2018.
The Afghan government remains mostly on the sidelines. And as Trump’s reelection campaign heats up, his quest to withdraw the remaining 14,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan remains unfulfilled.
In his ABC interview, Pompeo responded that the United States will continue its effort to “protect our nation from a terror attack ever emanating from that place again.”
Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said when it comes to trying to negotiate an Afghanistan peace deal with the Taliban, the key question is whether they can be trusted.
Mattis cited past U.S. nuclear talks with the Russians, when the American side talked about “trust but verify.”
He told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that “I think you want to verify, then trust” in dealing with the Taliban.
Mattis said the United States since the Bush administration has “demanded that they break with al-Qaida” but “they’ve refused to do so.”
He also said that “we should never forget” that they were behind 9/11.
Trump, who spent the weekend at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, did not tweet about the talks Sunday.