Amid Afghan chaos in the face of deadly militant attacks, President Donald Trump has ruled out holding talks with the Afghan Taliban.
“When we see what they’re doing and the atrocities that they’re committing, and killing their own people, and those people are women and children—many, many women and children that are totally innocent—it is horrible,” Trump said.
He was speaking to members of the United Nations Security Council at the White House.
“So there’s no talking to the Taliban. We don’t want to talk to the Taliban. We’re going to finish what we have to finish,” Trump delcared amid growing calls that the 17-year-old Afghanistan conflict needs a political solution and not repeat of military actions.
Steve Coll, a respected author and expert, wrote this week in The New York Times that a diplomatic solution seems to be the most realistice way out of Afghan troubles.
A spate of attacks by the Afghan Taliban and ISIS killed more than 100 people in Kabul and the military academy.
“I don’t think we are prepared to talk right now,” Trump said.
Trump’s statement further beclouds the Afghan strategy, which critics say is unclear on many counts.
“We don’t want to talk with the Taliban,” Trump said. “They are killing people left and right, innocent people.”
