Taliban negotiators and US officials meeting in Qatar finalized clauses in a draft agreement to end the 17-year-old Afghan war
US special peace envoy is heading to Kabul to brief President Ashraf
Ghani on the progress after the end of the longer-than expected six-day
discussions
KABUL/PESHAWAR: Taliban officials said US negotiators on Saturday agreed
a draft peace deal stipulating the withdrawal of foreign forces from
Afghanistan within 18 months of the agreement being signed.
The details were given to Reuters by Taliban sources at the end of six
days of talks with US special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Qatar
aimed at ending the United States’ longest war.
While neither side released an official statement, Khalilzad tweeted
later that the talks had made “significant progress” and would resume
shortly, adding that he planned to travel to Afghanistan to meet
government officials.
“Meetings here (in Qatar) were more productive than they have been in
the past. We have made significant progress on vital issues,” he wrote,
adding that numerous issues still needed work.
“Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed and everything must
include an intra-Afghan dialogue and comprehensive cease-fire,” he said
in the tweets.
A US State Department spokesperson declined further comment.
It was not clear if the draft described by the Taliban sources is
acceptable to both sides or when it will be completed and signed.
According to the sources, the hard-line extremeist group gave assurances
that Afghanistan will not be allowed to be used by Al-Qaeda and Daesh
militants to attack the United States and its allies — a key early
demand of Washington.
They said the deal included a cease-fire provision but they had yet to
confirm a timeline and would only open talks with Afghan representatives
once a truce was implemented.
Up until now, the Taliban has repeatedly rejected the Afghan
government’s offer of holding talks, preferring instead to talk directly
to the US side, which it regards as its main enemy.
“In 18 months, if the foreign forces are withdrawn and cease-fire is
implemented then other aspects of the peace process can be put into
action,” a Taliban source said, quoting from a portion of the draft.
More talks on the draft are expected in February, again in the Qatari capital Doha, the Taliban sources said.
They expect their side to be led by new political chief Mullah Abdul
Ghani Baradar, the movement’s co-founder and a former military commander
who was released from prison in Pakistan last year.
While they said his appointment had boosted momentum for a deal, it was unclear if he joined the talks.
Taliban officials believe the US was keen to get Baradar — who was
captured in a joint Pakistani-US intelligence raid in 2010 — to the
table so they could be sure of speaking to the movement’s most powerful
figures.
NEAR-DAILY ATTACKS
Other clauses in the draft include an agreement over the exchange and
release of prisoners, the removal of an international travel ban on
several Taliban leaders by Washington and the prospect of an interim
Afghan government after the cease-fire is struck, the Taliban sources
said.
The suggestion to appoint an interim government in Afghanistan comes at a
time when top politicians including Ghani have filed their nominations
for the presidential polls in July this year. Ghani has repeatedly
rejected the offer to agree to the formation of an interim government.
News of progress on a deal comes as the Taliban continues to stage
near-daily attacks against the Western-backed Afghan government and its
security forces.
Despite the presence of US-led foreign forces training, advising and
assisting their Afghan counterparts 17 years after the US-led an
invasion to drive them from power, the Taliban controls nearly half of
Afghanistan.
Ghani said last week that 45,000 members of the country’s security forces had been killed since he took office in 2014.
The United States has some 14,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of the
NATO-led mission, known as Resolute Support, as well as a US
counter-terrorism mission directed at groups such as Daesh and Al-Qaeda.
Despite reports in December last year that the United States was
considering pulling out almost half of its forces, a White House
spokesman said that US President Donald Trump had not issued orders to
withdraw the troops. However, the administration has not denied the
reports, which have prompted fears of a fresh refugee crisis.
The Taliban sources also confirmed provisions in the draft that have
broader implications for Afghanistan’s ties with its neighbors,
particularly Pakistan, India and China.
They said the deal included provisions that Baloch separatist militants
will not be allowed to use Afghan soil to target Pakistan.
Balochistan, a resource-rich yet often-neglected province in south west
Pakistan, has been the source of separatist insurgencies for more than
60 years.
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