In an abrupt move, US President Donald Trump called off separate secret meetings planned with the Taliban and Afghanistan's president at Camp David.
Mike Pompeo, US secretary of state, warned the Taliban that "things are about to get worse" after the group took responsibility for a suicide bomb attack that killed 12 people in Kabul last week, including a US soldier.
It puts nearly year-long talks with the Taliban on a temporary freeze and casts a question mark over whether Trump can fulfil an election promise to bring US troops back.
Al Jazeera's Rob Reynolds reports from Washington, DC.
