Afghans fear US undercutting them in deal with the Taliban

Afghans have been waiting anxiously to see whether negotiations between US officials and Taliban insurgents will lead to a lasting peace and a solid path to power-sharing or leave them bereft.

Those concerns deepened yesterday as news spread that President Donald Trump's top peace negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, had presented him on Saturday with a nearly finished deal that would remove thousands of US troops but had not locked in Taliban commitments to a ceasefire or negotiations with Afghan officials.

President Ashraf Ghani, who has been left out of the US-Taliban talks at the insurgents’ insistence, made no statements yesterday.

Afghans raised questions about the peace talks.

“Nobody knows what has happened in these talks,” said resident Mohammed Arzam, 74. “Everyone wonders, could things go back to the way they were in Taliban time? Women were hit with hoses, and people lived like animals in cages. If the Americans go, what will stop them this time?”

Raihana Azad, a legislator from Daikundi province, said Trump was hurrying to get the troops out “for the sake of his re-election, but it is a bad mistake”. “The Taliban cannot be trusted to hold up their side.”

The key Taliban demand is all US military forces, about 14,000, leave over an agreed time. The group's goal is to become the dominant force in Afghan public life.

The agreement described by US officials on Saturday chiefly covers the removal of US troops and Taliban commitment to cut ties with other extremist groups. It mentions a ceasefire and intra-Afghan talks after a deal is signed.

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