U.S. strikes Afghan exit deal with Taliban
DOHA, Qatar — The United States signed a deal with the Taliban on Saturday that sets the stage to end America’s longest war — the nearly two-decade-old conflict in Afghanistan that began after the Sept. 11 attacks, killed tens of thousands of people, vexed three White House administrations and left mistrust and uncertainty on all sides.
The agreement lays out a timetable for the final withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the impoverished Central Asian country that now symbolizes endless conflict, foreign entanglements and an incubator of terrorist plots.
American efforts to instill a democratic system in the country, and to improve opportunities for women and minorities, are at risk if the Taliban, which banned girls from schools and women from public life, become dominant again. Corruption is still rampant, the country’s institutions are feeble, and the economy is heavily dependent on American and other international aid.
The agreement signed in Doha, Qatar, which followed more than a year of stop-and-start negotiations and conspicuously excluded the American-backed Afghanistan government, is not a final peace deal, is filled with ambiguity and could still unravel.
But it is seen as a step toward negotiating a more sweeping agreement that some hope could eventually end the insurgency of the Taliban, the militant movement that once ruled Afghanistan under a severe Islamic code.
The war cost $2 trillion and took the lives of more than 3,500 American and coalition troops and tens of thousands of Afghans since the U.S. invasion in aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, which were plotted by al-Qaida leaders under the protection of the Taliban.
The withdrawal of U.S. troops — about 12,000 are still in Afghanistan — is dependent on the Taliban’s fulfillment of major commitments that have been obstacles for years, including its severance of ties with international terrorist groups such as al-Qaida.
The agreement also hinges on more difficult negotiations to come between the Taliban and the Afghan government over the country’s future. Officials hope those talks will produce a powersharing arrangement and lasting cease-fire, but both ideas have been anathema to the Taliban in the past.
“I really believe the Taliban wants to do something to show that we’re not all wasting time,” President Donald Trump told a news conference in Washington hours after the agreement had been signed. “If bad things happen, we’ll go back.”
Echoing his boss, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was in Doha for the ceremony, said “the agreement will mean nothing — and today’s good feelings will not last — if we don’t take concrete action on commitments stated and promises made.”
The Trump administration has framed the deal as the long-awaited promise made to war-weary Americans, for whom the Afghan war has defined a generation of loss and trauma but has yielded no victory.
At the height of the war, more than 100,000 U.S. troops occupied Afghanistan, as did tens of thousands from about 40 nations in the U.S.-led NATO coalition.
The war has gone on so long — the first allied warplane and cruise missiles struck on Oct. 7, 2001, and American boots hit the ground in numbers on Oct. 19 — that many young Afghan soldiers and their coalition partners have no memory of its onset.
“Everybody’s tired of war,” Trump told reporters in Washington. He also said he would be “meeting personally with Taliban leaders in the not-too-distant future and will be very much hoping that they will be doing what they say.”
The chief American envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, signed on behalf of the United States. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a current Taliban deputy and a figure from the original Taliban government, signed for the Taliban. The two shook hands as the room erupted in cheers.
Some Taliban members in attendance chanted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” a cry of victory.
More than 1,200 miles away during the signing, another senior American official, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, was with Afghan officials in Kabul to ease the Afghan government’s concerns.
Joined by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, they issued a declaration asserting the United States’ commitment to helping sustain the Afghan military.
Esper emphasized that if the Taliban violated pledges, “the United States would not hesitate to nullify the agreement.”
President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan called for a moment of silence for the war’s victims and said, “Today can be a day of overcoming the past.”
The deal’s conditional schedule for the withdrawal of the remaining American troops specifies that in the first phase, nearly 5,000 are to leave Afghanistan in 135 days. The withdrawal of the rest, to be completed within 14 months of the signing, will depend on the Taliban keeping its end of the bargain.
The insurgents pledged to keep international terrorist networks such as al-Qaida from using Afghanistan as a base for attacks. And the United States pledged to work toward the gradual removal of Taliban leaders from both U.S. and United Nations sanctions blacklists.
The United States also committed to seek the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government and 1,000 members of government security forces from the Taliban side by March 10 — less than two weeks away — before the Afghan and Taliban sides are expected to start direct negotiations.
A more durable cease-fire was not an explicit part of the U.S.-Taliban deal. That is to come in the direct talks between Afghan officials and the insurgency, officials said.
Khalilzad, the chief U.S. negotiator, struck an optimistic but somber tone.
“Today is a day for hope,” he said. “Today is a day to remember. We must remember the lessons of history and the darkness of conflict.”