Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said Sunday that he does not oppose President Trump talking with the Taliban, but said he does not like the president’s negotiating style after Trump announced on Twitter that he had cancelled talks with the Taliban and Afghan government.
“I don’t have a problem with the Trump administration trying to resolve our very long conflict in Afghanistan through direct negotiations with the Taliban, and I agree that we should not fully withdraw from Afghanistan until we’ve got conditions on the ground that will prevent it from becoming once again a haven for terrorists,” Coons said on CBS’s Face the Nation.
“But I disagree with how our president goes about his negotiations around the world. He seems to think that he and he alone individually can negotiate with Kim Jong Un in North Korea, with Xi Jinping in China, or in this case with the Taliban,” he continued. “I’m concerned that our president isn’t listening to his generals, to his diplomats, to the intelligence community.”
Coons’s comments follow Trump’s Saturday announcement that he had canceled the secret Camp David talks after the Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack in Kabul that killed a U.S. soldier and 11 others.
“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 tweeted.
“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.