KABUL: Afghanistan said on Tuesday the Taliban would have to be defeated onthe battlefield after the United States (US) President Donald Trumprejected the idea of talks with the militants following a series of deadlyattacks.
The Taliban reacted to Trump’s announcement by saying they never wanted totalk to the US anyway, but one senior member of the group said he suspectedefforts would still be made to get negotiations going.Talking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump condemned themilitant group for the recent carnage in Kabul and said the US was notprepared to talk now. He pledged to “finish what we have to finish”.
His comments suggested he sees a military victory over the Taliban, anoutcome that US military and diplomatic officials say cannot be achievedwith the resources and manpower he has authorised.
A spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said while the government hadencouraged the Taliban to talk, the attacks in Kabul, including a suicidebomb attack on Saturday that killed more than 100 people, was a “red line”.
“The Taliban have crossed a red line and lost the chance for peace,” saidthe spokesman, Shah Hussain Murtazawi.
“We have to look for peace on the battlefield. They have to bemarginalised.” He declined to comment directly on Trump’s announcement. ATaliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said they never wanted to hold peacetalks with the US anyway.
Trump last year ordered an increase in US troops, air strikes and otherassistance to Afghan forces. The US ambassador to the US, Nikki Haley, saidthis month the strategy was working and pushing the insurgents closer totalks.
That was before a suicide bomber penetrated the highly guarded centre ofKabul on Saturday and detonated an ambulance laden with explosives, killingmore than 100 people and wounding at least 235.
That attack followed a brazen Taliban assault on the city’sIntercontinental Hotel on Jan. 20, in which more than 20 people, includingfour Americans, were killed.
The Taliban said the attacks were a message to Trump that his policy ofaggression would not work.
Another Taliban member said the US had been approaching states that haverelations with the Taliban to try to get them to push the insurgents to thenegotiating table.
”President Trump is saying this for public consumption,“ the Talibanmember, who declined to be identified, said of Trump’s rejection of talks.”He and his team are making every effort to bring us to the negotiatingtable.
“Actually, the latest attack in Kabul awakened President Trump and hispuppets in Afghanistan about the capability of the Taliban and theirability to mount big attacks anywhere.”
The Taliban, fighting to oust foreign forces and impose their version ofIslamic rule, refer to the Afghan government as US “puppets”.The US believes the Haqqani network, a faction within the Taliban, wasbehind Saturday’s bomb blast in Kabul.
It and Afghanistan have long accused Pakistan of supporting the Taliban,and the Haqqani network in particular, as assets to be used in its bid tolimit the influence of old rival India in Afghanistan.
This month, Trump ordered big cuts in security aid to Pakistan over itsfailure to crack down on militants.
Pakistan denies accusations it fosters the Afghan war and condemned therecent attacks in Afghanistan.