US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Doha, Qatar, February 29, 2020 (Hussein Sayed/AP)


The US and the Taliban agree a timetable for withdrawal of American troops and talks with the Afghan Government to end the conflict since October 2001.

The agreement was signed in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday after more than a year of on-and-off negotiations.

The deal does not includes the Government in Kabul at this point. But the US and Pakistan, which has also played an essential role in the negotiations, are hoping for further discussions that will lead to a power-sharing arrangement and lasting ceasefire.

The US and Taliban were close to the agreement last September, but the arrangement unraveled when Donald Trump tweeted that Taliban leaders would come to Washington to sign the deal. The Taliban balked at Trump’s photo opportunity, and he quickly declared that the talks were “dead”.

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On Saturday, it was US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar who signed the agreement in Doha.

Trump said in rambling remarks yesterday, “I really believe the Taliban wants to do something to show that we’re not all wasting time. If bad things happen, we’ll go back.”

Still seeking his photo opporunity, he raised the prospect of an alliance with the group, ousted from Kabul in November 2001 by American bombing and US-supported Afghan factions.

I’ll be meeting personally with Taliban leaders in the not-too-distant future, and will be very much hoping that they will be doing what they say. They will be killing terrorists. They will be killing some very bad people. They will keep that fight going.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in Doha, was far more cautious about a first-step arrangement: “The agreement will mean nothing — and today’s good feelings will not last — if we don’t take concrete action on commitments stated and promises made.”

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in violence since 2001. Despite the military intervention by the US and an international coalition, the Taliban control about half of Afghanistan.

Corruption is widespread in the country, and last September’s Presidential election has been mired in accusations of vote-rigging.

In mid-February, election authorities declared incumbent Ashraf Ghani, the winner, but his main opponent Abdullah Abdullah rejected the decisions and said he will form his own “inclusive government”.

In Kabul, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg issued a declaration of ongoing commitment to assist the Afghan military.

Esper said “the United States would not hesitate to nullify the agreement” if it found the Taliban had not upheld pledges such as the ending of violence.

President Ghani called for a moment of silence for war’s victims and said, “Today can be a day of overcoming the past.”