President Donald Trump said peace talks with the Taliban are “dead,” after he called off a meeting with the Taliban and Afghan government leaders that was supposed to take place at Camp David over the weekend.
“They’re dead, they’re dead. As far as I’m concerned, they are dead,” Mr. Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn Monday.
Critics chastised the president after he announced a meeting with the Taliban and Afghan leaders scheduled for Camp David was called off — but it was the fact that a meeting with the Taliban had been scheduled at Camp David just days before the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks many found shocking.
The president reiterated to reporters that it was his plan to hold the secret talks, and his plan to cancel them.
Trump said he called off the talks because the Taliban had killed a US soldier and others a few days before the planned meeting.
“You can’t do that. You can’t do that with me,” the president told reporters.
A car bomb attack in Kabul on Thursday killed Sgt. 1st Class Elis A. Barreto Ortiz, 34, from Puerto Rico. A Romanian service member was also killed in the attack, as were at least 10 Afghan citizens. It was the second Taliban attack in Kabul in less than a week. The Taliban launched military offenses in three provinces last week.