MOSCOW (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump said Saturday that he canceled the meetings with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani as well as the Taliban movement's leadership over recent deadly terrorist attacks in the Afghan capital of Kabul.
On Friday, a source said that Ghani was going to visit Washington on Saturday accompanied by a 13-member delegation. Later on the same day, however, media reported that the Afghan president postponed his visit.
"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," Trump said on Twitter.
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
"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," Trump concluded.
....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
On Monday, a huge explosion hit Kabul's PD9 district, where foreign troops and agencies are located just hours after US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad shared with the nation's leadership the details of a peace deal drafted by the Taliban and the United States during the ninth round of talks in the Qatari capital of Doha. Three days later, three explosions rocked Kabul killing dozens of people, including a US soldier. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Afghanistan has long been suffering from an unstable security situation. The government has been fighting the Taliban, which has been waging a war against Kabul for almost two decades.
The United States has been negotiating a peace deal with the movement, which would envisage the withdrawal of foreign troops in exchange for Taliban's guarantee that it would cut ties to terrorist organizations and ensure that the country would not become a safe heaven for terrorists. The talks, however, excluded the Afghan government as Taliban considers it a US puppet.
