Trump reveals Taliban talks back on, visits troops in Afghanistan,

The US President revealed talks with the Taliban have resumed during a surprise visit to troops in Afghanistan.

‘There’s nowhere I’d rather celebrate this Thanksgiving’: Donald Trump dines with US troops at Bagram Air Field on Friday. Picture: Reuters

President Donald Trump has ­announced the resumption of peace talks with the Taliban after making a surprise trip to Afghan­istan to celebrate Thanksgiving with US troops.

“The Taliban wants to make a deal — we’ll see if they make a deal. If they do they do, and if they don’t they don’t. That’s fine,” Mr Trump said after a meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Friday AEDT.

Mr Trump didn’t say how or when the negotiations would ­resume. So far, the Taliban has ­refused to hold direct talks with Kabul. Mr Ghani has sought to take control of efforts to reach a negotiated settlement of the 18-year war and to shift the talks from the Gulf state of Qatar to Kabul.

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Mr Trump, making his first visit to the war-torn nation, was on the ground for more than three hours. He was greeted by Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mark Milley, who had arrived in the country separately on Thursday.

He delivered brief remarks and served turkey and trimmings to troops in a cafeteria at Bagram Air Field, the largest US base in ­Afghanistan. “There’s nowhere I’d rather celebrate this Thanks­giving than right here with the toughest, strongest, best and bravest warriors on the face of the earth,” Mr Trump said to about 1500 troops in fatigues.

Mr Trump again faulted the Taliban for the death of Army Sergeant Elis A. Barreto Ortiz in September, which led to the abrupt cancellation of peace talks, and he vowed: “We’re going to stay until such time as we have a deal or we have total victory, and they want to make a deal very badly.”

Mr Trump poses for pictures with soldiers during his surprise Thanksgiving day visit. Picture: AFP

Mr Trump also said he wanted to reduce the number of US troops in Afghanistan to 8600. The US has fewer than 14,000 troops in the nation, though the Pentagon won’t confirm exact numbers.

Mr Ghani thanked Americans who have made the “ultimate sacrifice” in Afghanistan. “Together we will succeed,” he said appearing before troops with Mr Trump. “We will never forget what 9/11 brought us.”

Mr Ghani, later in a tweet, said that he and Mr Trump discussed the military progress by Afghan and US forces, including what he said was the destruction of the local affiliate of Islamic State in the east of the country.

The Afghan President also said that he and Mr Trump stressed the Taliban must agree to a ceasefire to prove their commitment to peace. He didn’t say whether the truce must occur before the ­resumption of negotiations.

In a reference to neighbouring Pakistan, Mr Ghani also said that “terrorist safe havens outside ­Afghanistan must be dismantled”. Taliban officials reside in Pakistan and fighters often retreat there.

Mr Trump’s visit to Afghan­istan comes a little more than a week after the Taliban released two hostages, Australian Timothy Weeks and American Kevin King, after more than three years in captivity. Mr Weeks arrived in Sydney on Thursday night.

The move, part of a US-brokered swap under which the Afghan government released three senior Taliban military commanders, was part of an effort by US and other Western diplomats to persuade Mr Trump to resume the talks.

The trip was conducted under the highest of security, and only a tight circle of White House officials knew in advance. To keep suspicions at bay, Twitter messages were scheduled to be sent from Mr Trump’s account during the hours he didn’t have internet ­access while in the air.

The US and the Taliban had ­resumed direct talks in Qatar’s capital Doha in mid-2018 in an ­effort to iron out a foreign troop withdrawal deal that would lead to Afghan-to-Afghan talks and a ­negotiated settlement of the war.

By September 1, they had succeeded in reaching a withdrawal accord, said Zalmay Khalilzad, the chief US negotiator to the Afghan peace process.

Under the proposed agreement, about 5000 US troops would withdraw 135 days after the deal is signed. But in September, the administration’s efforts suffered a significant setback. Mr Trump said the Afghan government and Taliban officials had been set to travel to Camp David for talks. But the meeting was called off at the last minute after a Taliban bomb attack in Kabul killed Ortiz.

Following the attack, Mr Trump said: “I immediately cancelled the meeting and called off peace negotiations. What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position?”

The cancellation of the meeting created uncertainty over the potential for a comprehensive settlement of the nearly 18-year Afghan war, America’s longest.

The Wall Street Journal