The negotiations between the US and the Taliban on finalizing a peace deal have been slowed down after US President Donald Trump’s statement who said Washington is not rushing to pull out the American forces from the country, sources familiar with the negotiations said on Tuesday.
Mr. Trump who has been pushing for a diplomatic settlement to America’s longest war in Afghanistan said at a press conference on the last day of G7 Summit in Biarritz, France, that his administration had no rush to withdraw US forces from the country, something the Taliban have been pushing for in the past eighteen years to end the conflict in Afghanistan that has taken the lives of thousands of Afghan civilians and security force members.
“Whatever it is”, there is “no rush”, said Trump on Monday at a press conference at the sideline of the G7 summit.
“I personally don’t think that the agreement will be finalized today [Tuesday],” a former Taliban commander Sayed Akbar Agha said. “Trump’s argument that there will be a powerful intelligence presence as and there will be no timeline [for troop withdrawal], can be evaluated as a challenge for previous talks.”
This comes as senior negotiators from the US and the Taliban continue their ninth round of talks in Doha, Qatar, with the hope to seize an agreement which will support a partial withdrawal of US forces, almost 5,000 troops, out of 14,000 troops currently deployed the country.
On Tuesday, Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman to Taliban’s political office in Doha said in a Twitter post that the two sides are working hard to finalize their discussions on all issues related to a final peace agreement.
“You know that the war in Afghanistan is not the war between the Afghan government and four Taliban fighters. Powerful, regional and beyond regional countries are involved in this war. So we cannot expect an eighteen or nineteen years-long war to be settled in nine rounds of talks,” a woman MP Habiba Danish said.
“Naturally, there are concerns and reservations among those partnering in this war or have a role in it. I believe that it took a lot of time and it is now heading towards finalization, and now there are the technical issues which will determine the implementation of the commitments defined in the agreement. These are the key issues on which they resumed their talks today [Tuesday] at 10 am and I hope that this turns into the favor of the country,” said Habiba Danish, an MP.
Journalists who are covering US-Taliban talks in Doha have also reported progress on mutual issues between the two sides.
Sources said that the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad who leads the US in the talks with the Taliban is expected to return to Kabul once the US and the Taliban seal the final peace agreement where he will brief the Afghan political leaders and government officials about intra-Afghan negotiations.
Troop Withdrawal Saga
The Taliban who have been waging the war against the US, NATO, and Afghan forces have persistently said that there will be no deal with the US side unless Washington commits to withdrawal all its troops from the country. But critics in the US and Afghanistan have been saying that any hasty move on troop pullout will open the way for a new crisis in the country.
The Taliban who once were branded as terrorists by the US have assured that they will not allow Afghanistan’s soil to be used as a launchpad for attacks against the US or other countries once the US leaves the country.
However, critics have been suggesting that it is naïve to trust the Taliban assurances in the wake of their brutal attacks in the past.
Among the critics is the US was Senator Lindsey Graham who recently asked Trump administration not to reduce the number of American forces in Afghanistan less than 8,600 soldiers.
“Mr. President, if you don’t have a counter-terrorism force left behind, even if you got to deal with the Taliban which I doubt but you might they have no the capability or will to protect the American homeland. Every national security advisor to this president unanimously believes we need a robust counter-terrorism force to make sure that ISIS and al-Qaeda do not regenerate in Afghanistan to hit the American homeland,” Graham said in an interview with CBS.
When asked how many US troops should remain in Afghanistan, Mr. Graham said: “The number is gonna be around 8,600. To go below that I think would be really risky.”
Over the past one year, the US officials and senior negotiators from the Taliban have held discussions over a potential agreement that is focused on four key issues: a Taliban assurance that it will not allow Afghanistan’s territory to be utilized by anyone as a safe haven to conduct attacks outside the country, complete withdrawal of US and NATO forces, intra-Afghan negotiations and a permanent ceasefire.
