Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Trump reportedly tells Taliban official 'you are a tough people' in first phone call
Source: The Guardian
Trump reportedly tells Taliban official ‘you are a tough people’ in first phone call
Call with official whom Trump mistakenly called ‘leader of the Taliban’ is first direct exchange between a US president and insurgent leadership since 2001
Julian Borger in Washington
Tue 3 Mar 2020 21.25 GMT
Last modified on Tue 3 Mar 2020 21.35 GMT
Donald Trump has spoken by telephone to a senior Taliban official at a time when a row over prisoner exchanges and a fresh outbreak of violence jeopardised a historic US-Taliban peace agreement signed on Saturday.
The conversation between Trump and the head of the Taliban’s political office, Abdul Ghani Baradar, was the first direct exchange between a US president and the insurgent leadership since the US military intervention in Afghanistan began in 2001.
The Taliban said the call between Washington and Doha (where the Taliban negotiating team are based) lasted 35 minutes and claimed that Trump told Baradar: “You are a tough people and have a great country and I understand that you are fighting for your homeland. We have been there for 19 years and that is a very long time and withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan now is in the interest of everyone.”
Trump confirmed the conversation but gave few details about the discussion with the man he mistakenly referred to as “the leader of the Taliban”.
“We had a good conversation. We’ve agreed there’s no violence. We don’t want violence. We’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters. “We had actually a very good talk with the leader of the Taliban.”
-snip-
Call with official whom Trump mistakenly called ‘leader of the Taliban’ is first direct exchange between a US president and insurgent leadership since 2001
Julian Borger in Washington
Tue 3 Mar 2020 21.25 GMT
Last modified on Tue 3 Mar 2020 21.35 GMT
Donald Trump has spoken by telephone to a senior Taliban official at a time when a row over prisoner exchanges and a fresh outbreak of violence jeopardised a historic US-Taliban peace agreement signed on Saturday.
The conversation between Trump and the head of the Taliban’s political office, Abdul Ghani Baradar, was the first direct exchange between a US president and the insurgent leadership since the US military intervention in Afghanistan began in 2001.
The Taliban said the call between Washington and Doha (where the Taliban negotiating team are based) lasted 35 minutes and claimed that Trump told Baradar: “You are a tough people and have a great country and I understand that you are fighting for your homeland. We have been there for 19 years and that is a very long time and withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan now is in the interest of everyone.”
Trump confirmed the conversation but gave few details about the discussion with the man he mistakenly referred to as “the leader of the Taliban”.
“We had a good conversation. We’ve agreed there’s no violence. We don’t want violence. We’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters. “We had actually a very good talk with the leader of the Taliban.”
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/03/trump-reportedly-tells-taliban-official-you-are-tough-people-amid-peace-deal-row
