The Trump administration’s top national security adviser warned Sunday that hopes for a major peace deal with the Taliban will likely collapse if the militant group carries out any attacks during a fragile “reduction of violence” pact now underway in Afghanistan.
National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said in a television interview that President Trump would likely respond to any attack in the coming days the same way he did last September, when he abruptly pulled back from the brink of a deal with the Taliban after an attack by militants killed an American service member in Kabul.
“The president made it very clear the last time we were close to signing a deal with the Taliban and they engaged in some malign activity — they had a vehicle-borne IED [Improvised Explosive Device] that killed a number of people, including one American, and the president pulled back from signing the deal,” Mr. O’Brien said.
His comments on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday came in the wake of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s announcement Friday that U.S. negotiators and the Taliban have, after nearly two years of delicate negotiations, reached an “understanding” to decrease violence in Afghanistan over the coming week.
In a statement, Mr. Pompeo said both sides are preparing to sign a formal U.S.-Taliban peace agreement on Feb. 29, if the weeklong decrease in violence pact holds.
After the signing, Mr. Pompeo explained, intra-Afghan negotiations between the radical Islamist Taliban and the U.S.-backed Afghan government in Kabul will commence with the goal of delivering a “a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire and [a] future political roadmap for Afghanistan.”
Such a development could pave the way for Mr. Trump to succeed on one of his biggest 2016 campaign promises — to wind down the longest military campaign in American history and bring home more than 12,000 U.S. troops still in Afghanistan.
But Mr. O’Brien warned Sunday that the immediate path forward remains tentative.
“If the Taliban does not live up to their agreement on the reduction of violence plan, then we’ll take a very careful look at it,” he said, adding that, if that happens, “I think it’d be unlikely that we’d sign a peace treaty.”
He added that in such a scenario, the Trump administration is “not going to reduce troops to a level below what is necessary to protect American interests and our partners in Afghanistan.”
“I can assure you of that,” Mr. O’Brien said.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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