After more than 17 years of fighting and 2,248 American troop deaths, negotiators for the United States and Taliban reached “agreements in principle” on a possible peace deal that would end the longest war in US history, a top American envoy said Monday.
Zalmay Khalilzad said the US had “a draft of the framework” of a deal that could see American troops leaving Afghanistan within 18 months, but he added that it needed to be developed further.
In exchange for US troop withdrawals, the Taliban committed to ensure the country never becomes a haven for terrorists, as it was for al Qaeda in the years leading to the 9/11 attacks.
“We made progress on vital issues in our discussions and agreed to agreements in principle on a couple of very important issues. There is a lot more work to be done before we can say we have succeeded in our efforts, but I believe for the first time I can say that we have made significant progress,” Khalilzad said in a statement released by the US Embassy.
The US also wants a cease-fire before troops depart, but the Taliban have yet to agree to that.
The statement followed six days of talks last week with the Taliban in Qatar, where Khalilzad urged the insurgents to enter into direct negotiations with the government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, which they don’t recognize.
Ghani on Monday assured Afghans that their rights would not be compromised in the name of peace with the Taliban, who have been staging near-daily attacks against Afghan forces, causing scores of casualties every week.
Khalilzad said the deal could lead to a full pullout of the roughly 14,000 US troops stationed there — down from 140,000 American and other foreign troops there in 2012 — in return for a cease-fire and Taliban talks with the Afghan government.
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said on Monday that he was encouraged by the talks but had not yet been tasked with planning a withdrawal of troops.
“Really, the takeaway right now [is] it’s encouraging,” Shanahan said outside the Pentagon.
Benjamin Friedman, policy director for the conservative military think tank Defense Priorities, said agreeing to deny terrorists a safe haven was in the Taliban’s best interest because the US could always resume military action, which it wants to avoid.
“It is good news that the Taliban has agreed to a framework where it will keep terrorists out of territory it holds. [But] with congressional authorization, the United States can always target terrorists who threaten Americans . . . Denying terrorists haven serves the self-interest of the Taliban’s leadership,” Friedman said.
Mike O’Neill, a former first commanding officer of the NYPD’s Counterterrorism Division who is now the CEO of MSA Security in DC, told The Post that even if a deal is cut, the US and its allies would need a significant intelligence presence in Afghanistan to ensure compliance.
“We decimated al Qaeda, but that ideology is still there,” he said. “You physically beat them on the battlefield, and they realize they’re not going to beat us in a conventional fight, so you need good intel on the ground in that area, which remains a very difficult area, and we need to absolutely be engaged. It has to be actively monitored 24/7.”
Following the 9/11 attacks, the US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 to topple the Taliban, who were harboring al Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden.
Abdul Hakim Mujahid, a former Taliban official and current member of the High Peace Council, an independent body of clerics and respected Afghan figures, said that he believes the Qatar talks resulted in a “good understanding between both sides” but that more discussions are needed in the coming weeks or months.
“Afghanistan’s problem is not so simple that it can be solved in a day, week or month. It needs more time and more discussions,” Mujahid said.
The Taliban have in the past refused to negotiate directly with Kabul, and that stance that does not appear to have changed.
Although the Taliban control swaths of Afghanistan, US officials believe the insurgents are headquartered in Pakistan.
With Reuters