Washington: US President Donald Trump has announced the resumption of peace talks with the Taliban, but refused to give a timeline for the drawdown of US troops from Afghanistan, as he made an unannounced, surprise visit to American soldiers stationed in the war-torn country.
After nine rounds of negotiations with the Taliban, Trump said in September that he was calling the peace talks off after a US service member was killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.
It was Trump’s first trip, a surprise visit, to the war-torn country since he became the President. The visit on Thursday for Thanksgiving came a week after a prisoner swap with the Taliban aimed at resuming peace negotiations to end the 18-year-long war.
As part of the swap deal, the Taliban freed two Western academics who had been held hostage since 2016 - American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks - in exchange for three imprisoned senior militants.
"Yes," Trump told a small group of reporters at the Bagram Air Field when asked to confirm whether the US had restarted discussions with the Taliban after calling the peace talks "dead". Trump said the terms of the deal would have to include a Taliban ceasefire.
Too early for talks: Taliban
Kabul: The Taliban said Friday it was "way too early" to speak of resuming direct talks with Washington. The statement from insurgent spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid sounded a note of caution after Trump said during a lightning visit to Bagram Airfield that Taliban "wants to make a deal".
