Jake Sullivan, President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for national security adviser, has said that the deal signed between the United States and the Taliban in February imposes obligations on both sides and that it needs to be implemented in action, not in words.
Talking to CNN, Sullivan said that “there is currently a US Taliban agreement and it imposes some obligations on the United States and it imposes some obligations on the Taliban.”
“The obligations on the Taliban include cutting ties with al Qaeda, not just in word but in deed, reduces violence, and participating in good-faith negotiations with the Afghan government because, ultimately, it’s a deal between the Taliban and the Afghan government that is going to produce the kind of outcome, peaceful settlement that will allow us to achieve what is everybody’s goal, which is an end to the conflict in Afghanistan,” he said.
He added that the United States, under President Joe Biden, will support diplomacy along these lines, even as it ensures through America’s national security strategy that Afghanistan never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists to attack the United States.
The remarks come as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week defended Trump’s Afghan policy and said that all administrations before him tried to talk to the Taliban and withdraw US forces from the country, but their administration did it.
As part of the US-Taliban deal, the Taliban has vowed to cut their ties with terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda. However, Afghan officials last month claimed that the Taliban still maintains relations with al-Qaeda.
