Kabul: The Taliban on Tuesday vowed to continue fighting against US forcesin Afghanistan after President Donald Trump said talks with the insurgentswere “dead”, saying Washington would regret abandoning negotiations.
The renewed war of words between the two sides raised the spectre ofviolence in Afghanistan as Trump and the Taliban pledged to take the fightto each other following the precipitous collapse in talks.
“We had two ways to end occupation in Afghanistan, one was jihad andfighting, the other was talks and negotiations,” Taliban spokesmanZabihullah Mujahid told AFP.
“If Trump wants to stop talks, we will take the first way and they willsoon regret it.”
The Taliban´s statement came hours after Trump told reporters that the USwas walking away from negotiations after nearly a year of talks that aimedto pave the way for an American withdrawal from Afghanistan following 18years of war.
“They are dead. As far as I am concerned, they are dead,” Trump said at theWhite House.
The announcement followed Trump´s dramatic cancellation of a top-secretplan to fly Taliban leaders in for direct talks at the Camp Davidpresidential facility outside Washington.
Driving another nail into the coffin of what had appeared to be nearlyfinalised negotiations, Trump said a US military onslaught on theguerrillas was at its fiercest level in a decade.
“Over the last four days, we have been hitting our Enemy harder than at anytime in the last ten years!” he wrote in a tweet.
On Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that “we´ve killed over athousand Taliban in just the last 10 days.”
Trump angrily denied that the whiplash effect of his sudden shifts onAfghanistan was causing turmoil.
‘My own advice’
Until this weekend, there had been steadily mounting expectations of a dealthat would see the US draw down troop levels in Afghanistan.
In return, the Taliban would offer security guarantees to keep extremistgroups out.
But then on Saturday, Trump revealed that he had cancelled an unprecedentedmeeting between the Taliban and himself at storied Camp David.
He said this was in retaliation for the killing of a US soldier by theTaliban in a huge Kabul bomb blast last week.
The cancellation — announced on Twitter — was the first time mostAmericans learned that such a dramatic meeting was even planned.
Many in Washington were shocked and some were angry that the Taliban hadbeen about to visit the presidential retreat on the eve of the anniversaryof the September 11 terrorist attacks.
There was also widespread consternation at the characteristicallyunpredictable manner of Trump´s negotiating style.
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But Trump denied any discord among government members including VicePresident Mike Pence.
In a tweet, he accused journalists of trying “to create the look of turmoilin the White House, of which there is none”.
Trump added that he had no second thoughts about his actions.
“In terms of advisers, I took my own advice,” he later told reporters.
‘Murdering too many people’
A big part of Trump´s 2016 election victory and subsequent first term inoffice has been his determination to keep the US out of what he sees asunnecessary wars in Syria and other mostly Muslim countries.
Despite a fiercely pro-Israeli foreign policy and the presence of hawkslike national security adviser John Bolton in his cabinet, he has so farresisted escalating the military standoff with longtime foe Iran.
Getting out of Afghanistan, where US troops have fought a largely fruitlessbattle against the Taliban over nearly two decades, was a top priority.
It is widely thought that Trump has been pushing for a withdrawal of UStroops in time for his 2020 reelection bid.
Trump repeated on Monday that he wanted “to get out by the earliestpossible time”.
However, whether because of last week´s killing of a US soldier, as hesays, or due to wider misgivings, that goal now appears in tatters.
“They did a mistake,” Trump said of the Taliban´s deadly bomb attack.
Several Republican lawmakers concurred with the president´s decision on thetalks.
“I´ve never believed that a deal with the Taliban is either easy orimminent,” Senator Marco Rubio said.
Senator Mitt Romney said that “it wouldn´t have been my choice to have theTaliban at Camp David” — an opinion echoed by Senator Ron Johnson, whosaid he was “glad” the talks were not held there.
“I don´t see where those negotiations go. At some point in time if you wantpeace you have to talk to them, I don´t deny that,” said Johnson.
“But right now they´re murdering too many people.” – APP/AFP
