Trump says US has resumed talks with Afghan Taliban
US President Donald Trump said Thursday that the US had
resumed talks with Taliban insurgents as he made an unannounced trip to
Afghanistan to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with US troops.
“The Taliban wants to make a deal and we’re meeting with
them and we’re saying it has to be a ceasefire and they didn’t want to do a
ceasefire and now they do want to do a ceasefire,” he told reporters.
Trump took off after midnight from Bagram Air Field after
several hours with the troops and a brief meeting with Afghan President Ashraf
Ghani.
Trump abruptly broke off peace talks with the Taliban in
September, canceling a secret meeting with at Camp David after a bombing in
Kabul that killed 12 people, including an American soldier. It was not
immediately clear how long or substantive the US reengagement with the Taliban
has been.
White House spokesman Judd Deere said Ghani was notified of
the president’s visit a few hours before Trump’s arrival and accepted an
invitation to meet at the base.
