Taliban agree to temporary ceasefire

KABUL: The Taliban said on Sunday they have agreed to a temporary cease-fire nationwide. It provides a window during which a peace agreement with the United States could be signed.

A peace deal would allow Washington to bring home its troops from Afghanistan and end its 18-year military engagement there, America’s longest. The US wants any deal to include a promise from the Taliban that Afghanistan would not used as a base by terrorist groups. The U.S. currently has an estimated 12,000 troops in Afghanistan.

The Taliban chief must approve the agreement but that is expected. The duration of the cease-fire was not specified but it is being suggested it would last for 10 days.

Four members of the Taliban negotiating team met for a week with the ruling council before they agreed on the brief cease fire. The negotiating team returned on Sunday to Qatar where they maintain their political office.

The Taliban officials familiar with the negotiations spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media.

A key pillar of the agreement, which the US and Taliban have been hammering out for more than a year, is direct negotiations between Afghans on both sides of the conflict.

Those intra-Afghan negotiations are expected to be held within two weeks of the signing of a US-Taliban peace deal. They will likely decide what a postwar Afghanistan will look like, and what role the Taliban will play.

The negotiations would cover a wide range of subjects, such as the rights of women, free speech and the fate of the the tens of thousands of Taliban fighters, as well as the heavily armed militias belonging to Afghanistan’s warlords who have amassed wealth and power since the Taliban’s ouster.