US, Taliban keep open door to peace talks after summit scrapped

WASHINGTON - The United States and Afghanistan's Taliban on Sunday both left the door open to fresh talks after US President Donald Trump canceled a secret summit, but the insurgents threatened to inflict greater costs.

The Taliban issued a statement after the unexpectedly cancellation planned for Sunday with the Taliban's major leaders at the presidential compound in Camp David, Maryland. Trump broke off the talks on Saturday after the Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack in Kabul last week that killed a US soldier and 11 others.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, criticized Trump for calling off the dialogue and said US forces have been pounding Afghanistan with attacks at the same time.

"This will lead to more losses to the US," he said. "Its credibility will be affected, its anti-peace stance will be exposed to the world, losses to lives and assets will increase."

But he added that the Taliban still believed "that the American side will come back to this position" of talks that seek "the complete end of the occupation".

It was not immediately clear whether the US-Taliban talks will resume and when on ending nearly 18 years of fighting.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the Afghan peace talks were on hold and Washington would not reduce US military support for Afghan troops until it was convinced the Taliban could follow through on "significant commitments".

"I'm not pessimistic," Pompeo told NBC. "I've watched the Taliban do things and say things they've not been permitted to do before."

"I hope it's the case the Taliban will change their behavior, will recommit to the things that we've been talking to them about for months," he said on ABC.

"In the end, this will be resolved through a series of conversations," he added, urging the Taliban to drop their long-running refusal to negotiate with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's internationally recognized government.

He said that Trump had not decided whether to go ahead with a withdrawal, which under the draft deal would pull 5,000 of the roughly 13,000 US troops from Afghanistan next year.

But Pompeo warned that Washington was "not going to reduce the pressure" on the Taliban, saying US forces had killed more than 1,000 insurgents in the past 10 days alone.

Ghani's office cautiously saluted the "sincere efforts of its allies" after Trump called off the summit.

In a statement, the Afghan presidency also insisted that "real peace can only be achieved if the Taliban stop killing Afghans and accept a cease-fire, and face-to-face talks with the Afghan government".

Agencies

(China Daily 09/10/2019 page12)