KABUL – The Taliban said the US “will be harmed more than anyone” but leftthe door open for future negotiations.
“We still… believe that the American side will come back to this position…Our fight for the past 18 years should have proven to the Americans that wewill not be satisfied until we witness the complete end of the occupation,”the group said in a statement released on Twitter by spokespersonZabihullah Mujahid.
The statement said the insurgents had “finalised” a deal with the US thathad been expected to allow Washington to begin withdrawing troops inexchange for security promises from the Taliban.
It added that both sides had been preparing for the deal to be announcedand signed when Trump tweeted late Saturday that he had “called off peacenegotiations”.
Trump had cited a Taliban attack in Kabul on Thursday which killed 12people including a US soldier as his reason for calling off the talks,including a secret meeting with the insurgents at Camp David in Marylandplanned for this weekend.
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But the Taliban dismissed his reasoning in their statement, saying itshowed “neither experience nor patience”, and accused the US of killing“hundreds of Afghans” in the fighting.
“Americans will be harmed more than any other,” by Trump’s decision, thestatement said, adding that the US’s “credibility will be harmed, theiranti-peace stance will become more visible to the world, their casualtiesand financial losses will increase, and the US role in internationalpolitical interaction will be discredited even further.” -APP/AFP
