Withdrawal and peace process still on track despite violence

With violence surging in Afghanistan, and its government still deeply at odds with the Taliban, the Trump administration said Friday that a withdrawal of U.S. troops from the nation’s longest war was still on track.

The administration’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, said “challenges” were blocking progress on a U.S.-Taliban agreement signed earlier this year that was meant to clear the way for U.S. forces to leave. But he said both sides remained interested in ending a conflict that has gone on for decades.

Khalilzad said a horrific attack Tuesday on a maternity ward in Kabul that left newborn babies, their mothers and pregnant women dead, was the work of an offshoot of Islamic State and not the Taliban, the militant group that does not recognize the Afghan government. The Taliban has denied responsibility, but the Afghanistan government — which was not part of the withdrawal agreement — remains skeptical.

On Thursday, a truck bomb attack on an Afghan military base in the eastern part of the country was claimed by the Taliban, and prompted the Kabul government to announce it was resuming military operations against a rival group that controls large parts of the country. The U.S.-Taliban deal, Afghan government officials said, was near collapse.

Khalilzad, briefing reporters in Washington, acknowledged the deal he brokered Feb. 29 only obliged the Taliban to halt attacks on troops from the U.S.-led coalition, not on Afghan government forces or civilians.

“But we believe that they’re in violation of the spirit, given the number of attacks and Afghan casualties in those attacks,” he said. “We are saying that they are violating the spirit if not the letter, given that commitment that all sides will try to reduce violence.”

He also blamed outside actors like Islamic State, also known as ISIS, for attempting to torpedo the deal.

“There are forces such as ISIS that don’t see peace in Afghanistan in its interests and are trying to increase violence, to undermine the prospect for peace,” Khalilzad said. “We’re urging both sides not to fall into that trap, but indeed to cooperate against the terrorists, including ISIS.”

At the Pentagon on Friday, spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said the U.S. is proceeding with plans to reduce its troop count in Afghanistan to 8,600, from roughly 12,000, by early summer.

“We’re still moving forward with the force reduction levels that we’re committed to,” he said. “We expect to meet that.”

Under the deal, the Taliban was to commit to reducing terrorism, but terms were vague. In exchange, the U.S. agreed to a gradual withdrawal of troops who have been engaged in fighting in Afghanistan since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. NATO troops would also be pulled out.