The New York Times reports:
President Trump said on Saturday night that he had canceled a secret meeting at Camp David with Taliban leaders and the president of Afghanistan and was calling off monthslong negotiations that had appeared to be nearing a peace agreement.
“Unbeknownst to almost everyone,” Mr. Trump wrote in a series of tweets, Taliban leaders and the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, were headed to the United States on Saturday for what would have been a politically fraught meeting at the president’s official Camp David retreat in Maryland.
But Mr. Trump said that “in order to build false leverage,” the Taliban had admitted to a suicide car bomb attack on Thursday that had killed an American soldier and 11 others in the capital of Kabul. “I immediately cancelled the meeting and called off peace negotiations,” he wrote.
Reuters reports:
The surprise announcement left in doubt the future of the draft accord worked out last week by Zalmay Khalilzad, the special U.S. envoy for peace in Afghanistan, for a drawdown of thousands of U.S. troops over the coming months.
U.S. Marine General Kenneth McKenzie, who oversees American troops in the region, declined to comment on the diplomatic negotiations themselves but criticized a wave of Taliban violence that has cast a long shadow over the deal.
“It is particularly unhelpful at this moment in Afghanistan’s history for the Taliban to ramp up violence,” McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, told reporters traveling with him.
Unbeknownst to almost everyone, the major Taliban leaders and, separately, the President of Afghanistan, were going to secretly meet with me at Camp David on Sunday. They were coming to the United States tonight. Unfortunately, in order to build false leverage, they admitted to..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 7, 2019
….an attack in Kabul that killed one of our great great soldiers, and 11 other people. 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? They didn’t, they….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 7, 2019
….only made it worse! If they cannot agree to a ceasefire during these very important peace talks, and would even kill 12 innocent people, then they probably don’t have the power to negotiate a meaningful agreement anyway. How many more decades are they willing to fight?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 7, 2019
Camp David is where America’s leaders met to plan our response after al Qaeda, supported by the Taliban, killed 3000 Americans on 9/11.
No member of the Taliban should set foot there. Ever.
The Taliban still harbors al Qaeda.
The President is right to end the talks.— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) September 8, 2019
Never should leaders of a terrorist organization that hasn’t renounced 9/11 and continues in evil be allowed in our great country. NEVER. Full stop. https://t.co/pagnRFuFtc
— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) September 8, 2019
Trump canceled a meeting with Denmark because he was upset at how they rebuffed his idea to sell Greenland to the USA, but actually invited the leaders of the Taliban to meet with him at Camp David just days before 9/11?
Just think about how insane that is.
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) September 8, 2019
For the “art of the deal” president, Trump seems to constantly give away something for nothing. The extraordinary gift of a Taliban invite to Camp David was to be in return for what for the US?
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) September 8, 2019
I have to admit that I did not have “secretly invite the Taliban to Camp David three days before 9/11” on my Donald Trump Batshittery Bingo Card
— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) September 8, 2019
Breathtaking. There’s always a Trump tweet, Taliban editon. pic.twitter.com/NDVidFwOGz
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 7, 2019
Mattis says he’ll “break his silence in the case of a truly monumental Trump outrage, an eventuality that he has likened to pornography, in that, he told Amanpour, ‘I’ll know it when I see it.'”
Does seeing Trump invite the Taliban to Camp David qualify?https://t.co/3BwUovy8lP— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) September 8, 2019
It’s not like he invited them to camp david….. (of course there’s a chance trump never invited the taliban to camp david because the president is a huge liar) pic.twitter.com/7pLBnKk7An
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) September 8, 2019