Taliban Says Trump Would Regret Abandoning Talks
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Taliban vowed Tuesday to continue fighting against US forces in Afghanistan after President Donald Trump said talks with them were "dead," saying Washington would regret abandoning negotiations.
"We had two ways to end the occupation in Afghanistan, one was fighting, the other was talks and negotiations," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.
"If Trump wants to stop talks, we will take the first way and they will soon regret it,” he added.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump said the US military was already pounding Taliban positions in Afghanistan with unprecedented fire.
"They are dead. As far as I am concerned, they are dead," Trump said when asked about the long-running talks with the militant group in Qatar.
The talks produced a draft agreement last week that included a substantial US military drawdown from the country after 18 years of occupation, putting in sight an end to what has become the longest war in America’s history.
However, the prospect of peace in Afghanistan collapsed on Saturday, when Trump said he had called off a secret meeting with Taliban leaders in Camp David, outside Washington to discuss the deal.
The decision, Trump said, was his response to a deadly bomb blast by the Taliban, which killed 12 people in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Thursday, including an American soldier.
