U.S., Taliban negotiating terms of troop withdrawal
ISLAMABAD — The Taliban said Sunday that the latest round of peace talks with the United States is critical as the two sides “rewrite” a draft agreement in which American forces would withdraw from Afghanistan in exchange for guarantees from the insurgents that they would fight terrorism.
“We are working to rewrite the draft agreement and incorporate in it clauses that have been agreed upon,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said on the second day of talks with U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Qatar, where the militant group maintains a political office.
He cautioned that while the work is continuing, it is “not finished yet.”
The two sides are trying to hammer out agreements that would see the eventual withdrawal of more than 20,000 U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan and the end of America’s longestrunning war. The agreements are expected to include guarantees that Afghanistan will not harbor groups like al Qaeda, which was based there in the leadup to the Sept. 11 attacks, and that the Taliban will continue fighting the Islamic State group, which has expanded its footprint in recent years.
The two sides sat down to negotiate just days after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington is hopeful of reaching a deal by Sept. 1 to end Afghanistan’s protracted war.
“Getting a comprehensive peace agreement with the Taliban before Sept. 1 would be nothing short of a miracle,” said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the U.S.based Wilson Center. “That said, I could certainly envision a more limited deal being in place by Sept. 1 on a U.S. troop withdrawal, given that there’s already been ample progress on this issue.”
Pompeo and Khalilzad have both said the final accord will include not only agreements with the Taliban on troop withdrawal and guarantees of a nonthreatening Afghanistan, but also agreement on intraAfghan dialogue and a permanent ceasefire.
Until now the Taliban have refused direct talks with the Afghan government while holding separate meetings with a wide array of prominent Afghans, including former president Hamid Karzai, members of the former northern alliance that fought the Taliban during its fiveyear rule and individual members of the government.
The Taliban view President Ashraf Ghani’s government as an American puppet but have said they will meet with members of his administration as individuals. The insurgents, who effectively control half the country, have refused a ceasefire until the U.S. withdrawal is complete.
As talks go forward in Qatar, fighting continued to plague Afghanistan on Sunday. The Taliban rammed as many as four vehicles packed with explosives into a government compound in the southern province of Kandahar, leaving a trail of death and carnage.
The casualty toll was not immediately clear, but security officials in the province, as well as in the country’s capital, Kabul, estimated that as many as 50 people were killed, mostly police officers.