Despite President Donald Trump’s insistence that he had canceled peace talks with the Taliban and Afghan officials, it now appears that the meeting may have already fallen apart at least a day before the president made his announcement on Twitter.
Here’s what Trump tweeted out Saturday:
Unbeknownst to almost everyone, the major Taliban leaders and, separately, the President of Afghanistan, were going to secretly meet with me at Camp David on Sunday. They were coming to the United States tonight. Unfortunately, in order to build false leverage, they admitted to..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 7, 2019
….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. What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position? They didn’t, they….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 7, 2019
….only made it worse! 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?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 7, 2019
Problem is, a day earlier, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced that he had postponed his visit to the United States, according to the Associated Press:
Afghanistan’s president has postponed a planned visit to Washington early next week where he was to discuss the U.S.-Taliban talks on ending America’s longest war, a person familiar with the negotiations said Friday.
The development emerged after the U.S. envoy negotiating with the Taliban, Zalmay Khalilzad, abruptly returned to Qatar for unexpected talks with the insurgents on the deal that he had described as complete just days ago. The agreement “in principle” to begin a U.S. troop withdrawal only needed President Donald Trump’s approval, Khalilzad said Monday.
That led Nick Kristof of the New York Times to speculate:
Does Pres. Trump’s statement that a Camp David meeting was cancelled because of the bombing seem strange to others, too? The bombing was Thursday, and the Taliban claimed it then, so why cancel now? I wonder if the real reason was Pres. Ghani balking at participating. Thoughts?
— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) September 7, 2019
Did President Trump just get caught in another lie and wants to save face by pretending he canceled the summit meeting? If so, it may already be coming back to haunt him. Based on how he reacts on social media over the next 12-24 hours, we should have a much better idea exactly what transpired.
Featured Image Via CNN
