WASHINGTON, September 8. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump has canceled meetings with the Taliban movement leaders and Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani planned for September 8 and refused to participate in negotiations on peaceful settlement in the republic after a terror attack in Kabul which killed 12 people. The US president wrote about it on Twitter on Saturday.
"Unbeknownst to almost everyone, the major Taliban leaders and, separately, the President of Afghanistan, were going to secretly meet with me at Camp David on Sunday. They were coming to the United States tonight. Unfortunately, in order to build false leverage, they admitted to an attack in Kabul that killed one of our great great soldiers, and 11 other people. I immediately cancelled the meeting and called off peace negotiations," the president wrote.
"What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position? They didn’t, they only made it worse! If they cannot agree to a ceasefire during these very important peace talks, and would even kill 12 innocent people, then they probably don’t have the power to negotiate a meaningful agreement anyway. How many more decades are they willing to fight?" the president added.
During the past year the US and the Taliban movement carried out eight rounds of negotiations at which they discussed the withdrawal of forces, ceasefire, the prospects of the further inter-Afghan relations and the guarantees that Afghanistan will not become a range for international terrorism. On August 24, the sides’ representatives reached an agreement on temporary parameters of the foreign forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan’s territory during the ninth round of negotiations in Doha.