US, Taliban sign historic deal on Afghanistan’s future
   Date :01-Mar-2020
US Taliban sign_1 &n
 (L to R) US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar sign a peace agreement during a ceremony in the Qatari capital Doha on Saturday. (AFP)
 
DOHA :
 
Under the agreement, the US will reduce its troops from 13,000 to 8,600 in the next 3-4 months, with the remaining American forces withdrawing in 14 months. 
 
THE United States signed a landmark deal with the Taliban on Saturday, laying out a timetable for a full troop withdrawal from Afghanistan within 14 months as it seeks an exit from its longest-ever war. The agreement is expected to lead to a dialogue between the Taliban and the Kabul Government that, if successful, could ultimately see an end to the grinding 18-year conflict. Taliban fighter-turned-dealmaker Mullah Baradar signed the accord alongside Washington’s chief negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad, at a gilded desk in a conference room in a luxury Doha hotel.
 
The pair then shook hands, as people in the room shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest). US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo looked on as the two inked the deal, after urging the insurgents to “keep your promises to cut ties with Al-Qaeda”. On the eve of the signing, President Donald Trump urged the Afghan people to embrace the chance for a new future. “If the Taliban and the Government of Afghanistan live up to these commitments, we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home,” he said. But the position of the Afghan Government, which has been excluded from direct US-Taliban talks, remains unclear and the country is gripped by a fresh political crisis amid contested election results.
 
The Doha accord was drafted over a tempestuous year of dialogue marked by the abrupt cancellation of the effort by Trump in September. The signing comes after a week-long, partial truce that has mostly held across Afghanistan, aimed at building confidence between the warring parties and showing the Taliban can control their forces. The United States and its allies will withdraw all their forces from Afghanistan within 14 months if the Taliban abide by the terms of the accord. After an initial reduction of troops to 8,600 within 135 days of Saturday’s signing, the US and its partners “will complete withdrawal of all remaining forces from Afghanistan” within 14 months.
 
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg heralded the agreement as a “first step to lasting peace”. “The way to peace is long and hard. We have to be prepared for setbacks, spoilers, there is no easy way to peace but this is an important first step,” the Norwegian former Prime Minister told reporters in Kabul. Since the US-led invasion that ousted the Taliban after the September 11, 2001 attacks, America has spent more than $1 trillion in fighting and rebuilding in Afghanistan. About 2,400 US soldiers have been killed, along with unknown tens of thousands of Afghan troops, Taliban fighters and Afghan civilians.
 
The insurgents said they had halted all hostilities Saturday in honour of the agreement. “Since the deal is being signed today, and our people are happy and celebrating it, we have halted all our military operations across the country,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP. Any insurgent pledge to guarantee Afghanistan is never again used by jihadist movements such as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group to plot attacks abroad will be key to the deal’s viability. The Taliban’s sheltering of Al-Qaeda was the main reason for the US invasion following the 9/11 attacks.
 
Afghanistan Govt, Taliban to meet for face-to-face peace talks by March 10
 
WASHINGTON :
 
THE intra-Afghan peace talks, involving representatives from the Afghan Government, the Taliban and various other groups, will be held in Norway’s capital Oslo by March 10, officials here said on Saturday, as the US signed a landmark agreement with the Taliban in Doha to bring peace in the war-torn country. This will be probably for the first time since the 9/11 attacks that the representative of a duly elected Afghan Government and the Taliban would be meeting face-to-face for peace talks. “The parties will be meeting in Oslo. That negotiation will kick off as soon as each of the various components of that can get their negotiators to Oslo. We certainly expect it to be in the first half of March.
 
It may take a week, a week and a half, for all the parties to travel there,” a senior administration official told reporters here. Throughout this period, the reduction in violence remains in place, so it will give the US a good opportunity to test the durability of the reduction in violence and also perhaps set a better stage for it to move towards a permanent ceasefire once all the parties are at the table, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “The parties at the table will be the Afghan Government and the Opposition; it will be the Taliban; it will be Afghan civil society, and especially women’s groups will all be parties for this negotiation at the table.
 
The United States will be present, but this will be an intra-Afghan negotiation,” said the official. As part of the agreement, the US has established a communications channel, which is currently based in Doha, where it will continue its role of mediating between the Taliban and the Afghan Government. That communications channel is responsible for supporting the implementation of the agreement, another senior administration official said. “Obviously, we would be present in intra-Afghan negotiations,” the official said, adding that in Oslo, several other countries have expressed their intention to play a helpful role.
 
“There’ll be other Governments who will be supporting and facilitating the talks, so it would be, for example, us, the United States; Indonesia is likely to play a role, Germany is likely to play a role, Uzbekistan is interested in playing a role. So different types of partners that can help the parties,” the second official said. The United Nations would also be playing a role. “So they’re working out the design of how to do that most effectively, so I think that I would come back to you on how that develops,” said the official. According to the official, upon reaching Oslo, there will be commitments that the parties will be making that will further reduce the level of violence. “Our aspiration is very early on, once we have all the parties at the table, to reach a real ceasefire, which will require a lot more effort and will require all voices in Afghanistan to be represented at the table, because everyone will need to be committed to that for it to hold,” said the official. Responding to a question, the official said that it is “genuinely hard to predict” how this is going to unfold, given the complexity of the situation and the various positions of the parties. EU: US-Taliban deal is first step to Afghanistan peace process: THE European Union said Saturday a landmark deal between the US and the Taliban, and a separate US-Afghanistan declaration, are “important first steps towards a comprehensive peace process” in Afghanistan. The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement that “the current opportunity to move towards peace should not be missed” and the bloc expected “Afghan-owned and Afghan-led negotiations to start without delay in an inclusive manner and aiming at a lasting peace”. Pompeo urges Taliban to ‘cut ties with Al-Qaeda’: US SECRETARY of State Mike Pompeo called on the Taliban Saturday to honour its commitments to sever ties with jihadist groups as Washington signed a landmark deal with the Afghan insurgents. He called on the Taliban to “keep your promises to cut ties with Al-Qaeda.” “I know there will be a temptation to declare victory, but victory for Afghans will only be achieved when they can live in peace and prosper,” he said at the ceremony in Doha.