Taliban must reduce violence for meaningful negotiations: Trump

The U.S. President Donald Trump told Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Wednesday that there cannot be meaningful negotiations until the Taliban significantly reduces its violence, the White House said in a statement.

Ghani met Trump on the sideline of the World Economic Forum Davos 2020, Switzerland.

“Trump reiterated the need for a significant and lasting reduction in violence by the Taliban that would facilitate meaningful negotiations on Afghanistan’s future,” the statement said.

Washington has for weeks been calling for the violence to be reined in, posing it as a condition for resuming formal negotiations on an agreement that would see US troops begin to leave Afghanistan in return for security guarantees, after a near two-decade fight.

Meanwhile, the Taliban’s spokesperson Suhail Shaheen told Arab News in a phone conversation on Tuesday that Taliban representatives are holding talks with US negotiators in Qatar to create a “safe atmosphere” for the signing of a peace agreement.

“There had been no discussion on cease-fire since the beginning, but the US proposed reduction in violence and our stance is to provide a safe atmosphere during the days of the agreement,” Shaheen said as quoted by Arab News.

It comes as, on January 16, the Taliban reportedly gave the US Special Envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad a document that outlines their offer for a “temporary ceasefire” in Afghanistan that would last between “seven and ten days.”