WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump has said he held a “very good talk” with a Taliban leader in what may be the first direct discussion between a US leader and a senior Taliban official.
Taliban’s chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and Trump held a 35-minute telephone call on Tuesday, a Taliban spokesman said, with Trump later confirming the call to reporters in the White House.
“I spoke to the leader of the Taliban today,” said Trump. “We had a good conversation. We have agreed there is no violence. We don’t want violence. We’ll see what happens … We had actually a very good talk with the leader of the Taliban.”
The phone call came three days after the US and the Taliban signed an agreement in Doha on a US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan after more than 18 years.
“The President of the United States Trump @realDonaldTrump held a phone conversation with the Political Deputy of the Islamic Emirate, the respected Mullah Baradar Akhund. Details later,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid posted on Twitter.
In an emailed statement later, Mujahid said Trump told Baradar that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would soon speak to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani “so that the barriers against the inter-Afghan talks get removed.”
No other details were disclosed.
Acknowledging a military deadlock after nearly two decades of conflict, the US on Saturday signed a historic peace agreement with the Taliban.
The deal, signed by chief negotiators from the two sides and witnessed by Pompeo, could see the withdrawal of all American and allied forces within 14 months and allow Trump to keep a key campaign pledge to extract the US from “endless wars”.
But it could also easily unravel, particularly if the Taliban and other factions of Afghan society fail to have successful talks plotting a political way forward for the country.
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