Todd Bishop
US President Trump announced on September 7 that he would cancel the peace talks scheduled with the Taliban on the 8th. Some experts questioned that this move would weaken American prestige.
Trump was scheduled to meet with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Taliban personnel at Camp David on the 8th, but was temporarily cancelled. Trump pointed out that the reason was that the Taliban launched an attack earlier, claiming that if the attack continued at a critical time in the negotiations, the negotiations would not be able to reach a meaningful agreement.
Aaron David Miller, a former US State Department adviser, believes that Trump is trying to stop a bad deal and personally intervene as usual. Miller helped arrange the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks held in Camp David in 2000.
Miller, who is currently at The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, questioned why the talks were led by Trump, not by special envoys or Secretary of State, and why they chose to camp at David.
He said it was due to Trump’s instinct and his desire to be the focus of everyone.
The Camp David was the vacation home of the President of the United States. The summit held at Camp David in 1978 led to a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. Miller pointed out that Trump’s move is both symbolic and practical: “Look at the results now. The president has suspended any negotiations with the Taliban. He seems to have made the situation worse.”
Washington famous Brian Katulis, a senior researcher at the American Center for Progress (CAP) in the think tank, said it was difficult to determine Trump’s tactics as a success story that brought foreign policy.
Katuris, who once worked for Bill Clinton’s government, said that in addition to Trump’s use of unpredictable ways of doing things, it has not been seen from past examples of what is common or philosophical to push him to do so. But this practice weakens the efforts of those who work for him. They tried to do the basic work needed to push for a peace agreement with Afghanistan, North Korea or Iran.
Katuris said: “This creates the influence of the United States as a more unpredictable and unstable actor. This style may eventually encourage other countries to directly address the words of the United States or any process it is currently participating in.
