Explained: As US calls off peace talks with Taliban, Afghanistan stares at abyss

President Ashraf Ghani’s government was not included in the US-Taliban talks. This was the Taliban precondition for the talks. The Taliban consider the elected Afghan government a “puppet” or “proxy” of the US

Explained: As US calls off talks with Taliban, Afghanistan stares at abyss — Since January, there has been a steady spike in attacks as the Taliban have leveraged violence to buttress their bargaining position, and tried to take control of as much territory as they could before the agreement with the US was finalised.

Before dawn India time on Sunday, Donald Trump posted a remarkable message on Twitter, announcing that (a) he had been scheduled, within hours, to meet on United States soil the leadership of the Afghan Taliban, and (b) he had “cancelled the meeting and called off peace negotiations” because the Taliban had, “in order to build false leverage”, admitted to a terrorist attack in Kabul in the middle of the “very important peace talks”.