Pompeo: Taliban talks are dead ‘for the time being’

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that peace talks with the Taliban are dead “for the time being,” after President Trump announced that he had cancelled talks with the insurgent group and Afghan government. 

Asked by “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace whether the talks were “dead,” Pompeo replied, “For the time being they are.”

“They tried to use terror to improve their negotiating position, and I think anyone who’s observed President Trump knows…if in the course of a conversation, where we’re trying to improve both teams’ outcomes, if the other team commits an act that’s inconsistent, with that, President Trump’s not going to take that,” he said, referring to an attack claimed by the Taliban that killed a U.S. soldier and 11 others. 

{mosads} “We’re looking for more than words on paper, we’re looking for real delivered commitment and the Taliban demonstrated either that they weren’t willing to or couldn’t live up to the commitment they needed to make to reduce violence there,” he added. 

Wallace then asked if the talks were off “indefinitely.”

“I hope we get them started back,” Pompeo said. “It will ultimately be up to the Taliban. They have got to demonstrate that they’re prepared to do the things that we ask them to do in the course of those negotiations.”

The secretary of State also said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that “applying military pressure to the Taliban is necessary” for the negotiations.

“We’ve killed over 1,000 Taliban in just the last 10 days, so it has not been the case that we’ve been negotiating with our hands tied behind our back.”

Trump tweeted late Saturday that he canceled a secret meeting with leaders of the Taliban and Afghanistan’s president at Camp David.

“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,” Trump wrote. 

“I immediately cancelled the meeting and called off peace negotiations,” he added. “What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position?”

A draft accord had reportedly been reached that included the withdrawal of 5,000 U.S. troops. 

–This report was updated at 11:11 a.m.

Read more from The Hill:

Pompeo defends Trump’s invitation of Taliban to Camp David