[Mr. Trump made the comments on Monday during an Oval Office meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan. The president said he was referring to prepared military plans for Afghanistan, adding, “I could win that war in a week.”]
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During
a meeting in the Oval Office on Monday with Prime Minister Imran Khan
of
Pakistan, President Trump said he could win the war in
Afghanistan “in a week.”
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KABUL,
Afghanistan — Afghanistan
demanded a clarification on Tuesday of President Trump’s comments a day earlier
that he could have had the country “wiped off the face of the earth” but did
not “want to kill 10 million people.”
In a sharply worded statement, the government
of President Ashraf Ghani noted that Afghanistan expected its relationship with
the United States to be “grounded on common interests and mutual respect.”
Mr. Trump made the comments on Monday during
an Oval Office meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan. The
president said he was referring to prepared military plans for Afghanistan,
adding, “I could win that war in a week.”
Mr. Ghani’s government, facing a bruising
re-election campaign this fall, indicated that it did not intend to let the
matter drop. “The government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan will keep
the Afghan public posted on the issue,” its statement said.
Mr. Ghani has expended political capital by
embracing Mr. Trump’s South Asia policy in the face of opposition in a complex
region with competing rivalries. The American president’s comments on Monday
seemed, to many Afghans, to be walking back his commitments to their country.
There was no immediate comment from the State
Department early Tuesday.
While Americans may be accustomed to
provocative statements from Mr. Trump, Afghans tend to interpret any comment by
an American president about Afghanistan as an official declaration of policy.
In the meeting on Monday, Mr. Trump said that
Mr. Khan would help negotiate peace in Afghanistan, and that Pakistan would
help the United States “extricate ourselves” from the conflict.
Former President Hamid Karzai, who during his
tenure had a strained relationship with the United States over civilian
casualties caused by American forces, said Mr. Trump had insulted all Afghans.
In a statement on Tuesday, Mr. Karzai said
that the American president’s comments confirmed the suspicions of many Afghans
that the United States had made “secret deals” with Pakistan to undermine
Afghanistan’s sovereignty. He offered no explanation for what the “secret
deals” might be, but Afghanistan has accused Pakistan of providing safe havens
to the Taliban.
Mr. Karzai added that the United States “is
not respecting our lives and human dignity at all.”
Rahmatullah Nabil, a former Afghan
intelligence chief and a current candidate for president, noted that Mr. Trump
had made no mention of continuing the United States’ commitment to Afghanistan.
“Does this mean,” Mr. Nabil wrote on Twitter
on Tuesday, that “other US officials are misleading AFG about long term
commitments?”
Rangin Dadfar Spanta, a national security
adviser for Mr. Karzai, told reporters on Tuesday that Mr. Trump’s words were
“a terrible, racist political message.”
“There is no need to brag that you can kill
10 million Afghans,” he added.
The State Department announced on Tuesday
that the American representative to peace talks with the Taliban, Zalmay
Khalilzad, had returned to the region to prepare for the next round of talks
with the militant group.
In a Twitter message on Tuesday, Mr.
Khalilzad appeared to try to repair the damage from Mr. Trump’s remarks by
describing an “enduring” United States relationship with Afghanistan.
“I’m arriving in Kabul today, focused on
achieving an enduring peace that ends the war, ensures terrorists do not use
Afghanistan to threaten the US, honors the sacrifices that US, our allies &
Afghans made, and cements an enduring relationship w/Afghanistan,” he posted.
The seventh round of peace talks, in Doha,
Qatar, was suspended July 9 to allow officials to consult with their
leaderships. Mr. Khalilzad has said that the Taliban and the United States had
agreed to a framework in which the militants would not allow terrorists to use
Afghanistan soil and the United States would begin a phased withdrawal of its
14,000 troops in the country.
Any final deal would also include direct
negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government and a comprehensive
cease-fire, Mr. Khalilzad has said. The Taliban has refused to negotiate with
the government in Kabul, calling it illegitimate.
Separately, an Afghan delegation — which
included government officials acting as private citizens — held two days of
informal talks in Doha with the Taliban and issued a statement July 9 promising
to work to reduce civilian casualties.
Abdul Latif Pedram, an Afghan presidential
candidate who is opposed to the Taliban and who has met informally with Taliban
officials, accused Mr. Trump of “shameless arrogance.” In a statement, Mr.
Pedram called on the United States to withdraw its troops and for Afghans to
fight Americans “until the withdrawal of your very last soldier.”
Addressing Mr. Trump, Mr. Pedram added, “Many
occupiers have tried to capture this country, but they found only a graveyard.
This country will be your graveyard.”
On the street and on social media, ordinary
Afghans responded with a mix of fury and bewilderment.
“He is not a sane person,” Khan Ali, 35, a
street vendor, said of Mr. Trump.
Mohammad Arif, 50, a shoemaker, said of the
president’s comments: “This is in no way possible. Trump has a kind of
madness.”
On Facebook, Zakir Jalali wrote, “So the
fight against terrorism was just a joke?”
Another Facebook user, Masoud Hemayat,
posted, “Until there is only a single American in Afghanistan, we will not see
a happy day in our country.”
Fahim Abed and Jawad Sukhanyar contributed
reporting.
