Peace deal lets Taliban share power Afghanistan
The Taliban are poised to return to power in Afghanistan after the signing of a historic peace settlement with the United States, setting out a pathway for ending America’s longest war.
Taliban and US negotiators met in Doha yesterday to sign a deal outlining an immediate drawdown in the number of foreign troops in both the American and Nato missions, leading to their eventual departure.
At the same time, a parallel deal was to be signed in Kabul between the US and Afghanistan, laying the groundwork for negotiations over a powersharing deal bringing the Taliban into government.
US President Donald Trump has been pushing for American troops to start coming home before voters go to the polls in November, making good on his 2016 election promise to stop America’s ‘‘endless wars’’ in the Middle East.
Yesterday was the last day of a week-long ‘‘reduction in violence’’ pact intended to serve as a test of the Taliban’s good faith in reaching a peace agreement. Attacks have fallen by 80 per cent in the past seven days, good enough to meet American approval.
Critics, however, have questioned how meaningful the pause in hostilities can really be, coming at a time when much of the country is snowbound and when fighters typically regroup before spring offensives.
The deal also comes at a time when the Taliban is stronger than at any point since the Americanled invasion in 2001.
In Doha, envoys from the Afghan government were also due to meet Taliban representatives for the first time before the signing, having been shut out of negotiations so far.
The withdrawal will begin with a drawdown of about a third of US troops from 12,000 to 8000, and accompanying reductions of other Nato forces, including the British contingent, expected to go down from about 1100 to 900.
At the same time, the US and Afghan governments are due to release 5000 Taliban fighters being held as prisoners, while the Taliban will release 1000 Afghans.
The Taliban will commit to a ceasefire and pledge not to allow its territory to again become a sanctuary for terrorists seeking to attack the West as it did with al Qaeda, providing a haven from which the September 11, 2001 attacks were plotted.
Taliban leaders have boasted that if all goes according to plan,
American troops will be out of the country in little more than a year. Washington, however, has not confirmed that timetable.
Also, it is still unclear whether the Afghan government is actually willing to release the 5000 prisoners the Taliban has demanded, which would bolster its fighting ranks.
Under the terms of the deal, the Afghan government will have days or weeks to put together a negotiating team to begin dialogue with the Taliban on a power-sharing deal. Marshalling the two sides towards such a dialogue has proved to be one of the toughest parts of the negotiations.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani insisted on calling an election in September to give himself a mandate going into the talks, reopening divisions. The official declaration of his victory last week, with just over half of the national vote, was rejected by his rival, Abdullah Abdullah, who has vowed to set up a parallel government.