President Ghani congratulated U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and U.S. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on wining the United States election and said Afghanistan looks forward to continuing and deepening its multilayered strategic partnership with the U.S. as a foundational partner for the country, including in counterterrorism and bringing peace to Afghanistan.
Abdullah Abdullah, the chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, also congratulated Biden for his “momentous win, and also the American people for their historic election turnout.”
Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai congratulated Biden and Harris and said, “President-elect Joe Biden called for unity and healing, the right call for a noble cause.”
“We need the same in Afghanistan in a much deeper and more profound way,” Karzai said. “We hope his administration’s policy and relations with Afghanistan will focus entirely on bringing peace and stability.”
On Saturday, the Afghan government said the strategic partnership between the United States and Afghanistan is based on mutual interests and that there will be no major shift in the U.S.’s Afghan policy after outcome of the U.S. election.
“The foundation of our partnership over the past nineteen years has always been based on the understanding that the two governments and the people have on their common interests. No doubt, we will remain as an ally whether there is any administration in the United States,” presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.
There is a perception in Afghanistan that Joe Biden’s victory in the U.S. election will bring changes in the U.S. policy towards the Afghan peace process and the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country.
Critics said the continuation of the U.S. war in Afghanistan is one of the main commonalities that has led to a consensus among the American politicians on war and peace in the region. The critics said that it remains unclear whether there will really be a significant shift in the U.S. policy towards Afghanistan after the announcement of the winner of the U.S. presidential election.
U.S. and Taliban agreement
Following eighteen months of negotiations in Doha, the U.S. and the Taliban officially signed a peace deal on February 29 this year that pave the way for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in exchange for a number of solid assurances by the Taliban to the U.S. and its allies.
The agreement states that the U.S. will fully withdraw its forces over the next 14 months, and that the current force of about 13,000 troops will be reduced to 8,600 within 135 days. Non-U.S. NATO and other coalition forces will also be reduced proportionally over that time.
The agreement was also urged the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners, Intra Afghan talks, and Taliban will cut its relation with Al-Qaeda.
The Afghan government has released 5,600 Taliban prisoners as part of conditions ahead of the peace negotiations.
The negotiators from the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban are in Doha where they are trying to bridge gaps on some contested topics and procedural rules intended for the formal talks.
The two sides have held over 10 meetings at the contact groups level over the last nearly two months, but have not reached an agreement on the disputed points to begin the direct talks, which have been called a historic opportunity for Afghanistan to end the decades of war and bloodshed.
The two sides have agreed on 18 out of 20 articles for the procedural rules, but two main articles—the religious basis for the talks and connection of the U.S.-Taliban deal with the negotiations—remain unsolved.
The peace negotiations between teams from the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban started on September 12.
.
