KABUL – The Taliban on Tuesday vowed to continue fighting against USforces in Afghanistan after President Donald Trump said talks withinsurgents were “dead”, saying Washington would regret abandoningnegotiations.
“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.
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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. -APP/AFP
