NEW YORK – United States (US) President Donald Trump Friday returned toFlorida following his surprise trip to Afghanistan during which heannounced that he had reopened peace negotiations with the Taliban lessthan three months after scuttling talks with the militant group aimed atending 18 years of war.
Trump was spending Thanksgiving holidays in his Mar-a-Lago resort inFlorida when he flew in secrecy to Kabul on Wednesday night to see UStroops. It was his second visit to a combat zone as president and the firstto Afghanistan — he visited Iraq last year.
Details about US leaders’ visits to combat areas are tightly held untilthey leave.
News of Trump’s visit to Afghanistan came on Thursday evening, whenreporters traveling with the president were given authorization to reporton the trip. Reporters were given the go-ahead minutes before thepresidential plane lifted off from Bagram air base where he spent aboutthree hours.
The White House said an identical presidential aircraft remained in Floridaat the airport in Palm Beach while Trump traveled to Afghanistan. Thatplane then flew to Germany on Thursday to pick up the president for thesecond leg of his trip back.
Trump arrived in Kabul shortly after 8:30 p.m. local time Thursday. Withintwo hours, he met and took photos with troops at a dining hall, held ameeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and delivered a speech toservice members that wrapped up shortly after 11 p.m. local time. Air ForceOne left Bagram at midnight.
During the visit, Trump announced that he has resumed peace talks with theTaliban, after he declared talks “dead” in September following a scrappedsecret meeting with members of the Taliban and officials from the Afghangovernment at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.
Trump at the time blamed the canceled visit on an attack in Kabul daysearlier that left 12 people dead, including a US service member, saying,“When I heard very simply that they killed one of our soldiers and 12 otherinnocent people, I said there’s no way I’m meeting.”
The president said Thursday that he believes the Taliban is ready for acease-fire, and announced that he would like to reduce the number of UStroops in Afghanistan from less than 14,000 to 8,600.
“The Taliban wants to make a deal — we’ll see if they make a deal. If theydo they do, and if they don’t they don’t. That’s fine,” Trump said duringhis meeting with Ghani.
“The Taliban wants to make a deal and we’re meeting with them and we’resaying it has to be a cease-fire and they didn’t want to do a cease-fireand now they do want to do a cease-fire,” he added. “I believe it’llprobably work out that way.
“We’re going to stay until such time as we have a deal, or we have totalvictory, and they want to make a deal very badly,” Trump said even as hereaffirmed his desire to reduce the American military presence to 8,600troops, down from about 12,000 to 13,000.
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Trump’s sudden announcement on peace talks came at a critical moment in theUnited States’ long, drawn-out military venture in Afghanistan, a time whenthe country is mired in turmoil over disputed election results andAmericans at home are increasingly tired of an operation that began shortlyafter the September 11 attacks.
The scope and prospects of any renewed negotiations remained unclear, andWhite House officials gave few details beyond Trump’s sudden revelation.
On the flight to Afghanistan, Stephanie Grisham, the White House presssecretary, had insisted that the secret trip was “truly about Thanksgivingand supporting the troops” and “nothing about the peace process” with theTaliban.
Trump’s visit came a week after a prisoner swap between Washington andKabul that raised hopes for a long elusive peace deal.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, told Reuters on Fridaythey were “ready to restart the talks”.
“Our stance is still the same. If peace talks start, it will be resumedfrom the stage where it had stopped,” Mujahid added.
Taliban leaders have told Reuters that the group has been holding meetingswith senior US officials in Doha since last weekend, adding they could soonresume formal peace talks.
Meanwhile, about his talks with Trump, President Ghani said, “Both sidesunderscored that if the Taliban are sincere in their commitment to reachinga peace deal, they must accept a ceasefire.
We also emphasized that for any peace to last, terrorist safe havensoutside Afghanistan must be dismantled.”
