Donald Trump tries again to reach a deal with the Afghan Taliban

AN UNANNOUNCED VISIT at Thanksgiving to the troops in Afghanistan by an American president facing re-election next year is perhaps to be expected. But after doling out turkey and mashed potatoes to homesick soldiers, Donald Trump did pull something of a surprise. He revealed that his administration had resumed talks with the Taliban insurgency. In September he had abruptly declared these negotiations dead, on the eve of what he said were planned talks with the Taliban at the presidential retreat at Camp David. He told troops at Bagram Airfield near Kabul that they were back on: “The Taliban wants to make a deal and we are meeting with them.”

Mr Trump said he still wanted to cut the numbers of American soldiers in Afghanistan from 12,000-13,000 now to 8,600, but added: “We’re going to stay until such time as we have a deal, or we have total victory, and they [the Taliban] want to make a deal very badly.” Scant detail was given, but the insurgents would accept a truce, he claimed. “We say it has to be a ceasefire and they didn’t want to do a ceasefire, and now they want to do a ceasefire, I believe.”