Shereena Qazi ,Al-Jazeerah
Doha, Qatar – US officials and Taliban representatives have signed a final peace deal after months of negotiations in Qatar’s capital to end the United States’s longest war, fought in Afghanistan since 2001.
Saturday’s agreement, signed in Doha in the presence of leaders from Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, will pave the way for the US to gradually withdraw its troops.
The two sides have long wrangled over the US demand for a ceasefire before the signing of the final peace agreement, which has four points: a timeline of 14 months for the withdrawal of all US and NATO troops from Afghanistan; a Taliban guarantee that Afghan soil will not be used as a launchpad that would threaten the security of the US; the launch of intra-Afghan negotiations by March 10; and a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire.
In a statement, the Taliban said it had reached an agreement “about the termination of occupation of Afghanistan”.
“The accord about the complete withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan and never intervening in its affairs in the future is undoubtedly a great achievement,” it added.
Earlier on Saturday, the Taliban ordered all its fighters to halt fighting and “refrain from attacks”.
Mohammed Naeem, a Taliban representative in Doha, described the deal as “a step forward”.
“With this deal comes the end of war in Afghanistan,” he told Al Jazeera.
For his part, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on the Taliban to honour its commitments.
“I know there will be a temptation to declare victory, but victory for Afghans will only be achieved when they can live in peace and prosper,” he said at the Doha ceremony.
Troop withdrawal
Minutes before the deal was signed, a joint statement released by the US and the Afghan government said the US and NATO troops would withdraw from Afghanistan within 14 months.
About 14,000 US troops and approximately 17,000 troops from 39 NATO allies and partner countries are stationed in Afghanistan in a non-combatant role.
“The United States will reduce the number of US military forces in Afghanistan to 8,600 and implement other commitments in the US-Taliban agreement within 135 days of the announcement of this joint declaration and the US-Taliban agreement,” the joint statement said.
It added that the Afghan government will engage with the United Nations Security Council “to remove Taliban members from sanctions list by May 29”.
“No agreement is perfect, and the US-Taliban deal is no exception,” said Robert Malley, president and CEO of the International Crisis Group.
“But it represents the most hopeful step to end a war that has lasted two decades and taken countless American and especially Afghan lives. It ought to be celebrated, bolstered and built upon to reach a genuine intra-Afghan peace.”
D.W reports;
Representatives of the United States and the Taliban have sealed a landmark agreement in Qatar to end the 18-year-long Afghan war. The deal will pave the way for an intra-Afghan dialogue. Shamil Shams reports from Doha.After the successful implementation of a weeklong reduction in violence in Afghanistan, the US and the Taliban on Saturday inked an agreement to end the protracted conflict.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the Taliban’s spokesperson in Doha, Suhail Shaheen, attended the deal signing ceremony.
The deal sets into motion the drawdown of US troops from Afghanistan — a key Taliban demand since the start of the conflict in 2001. The US will pull out 8,600 soldiers from the 13,000 currently stationed in Afghanistan.
Both Washington and the Taliban hailed the deal as a historic milestone, which they say is a major step toward achieving peace in the war-ravaged country.
“If the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan live up to these commitments, we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home,” US President Donald Trump said in a statement on Friday.
“These commitments represent an important step to a lasting peace in a new Afghanistan, free from al-Qaeda, ISIS, and any other terrorist group that would seek to bring us harm,” he added.
Experts say the deal will boost Trump’s chances of a re-election this year.
Chance for peace ‘should not be missed’
The European Union welcomed the US-Taliban deal as “important first steps” toward securing a lasting resolution to the conflict, but urged for human rights and women’s rights to be respected going forward.
“The current opportunity to move towards peace should not be missed,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement.
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper stressed that the agreement is only the beginning, and that Washington is prepared to pull out of deal if the Taliban fails to uphold the agreement.
“The road ahead will not be easy. Achieving lasting peace in Afghanistan will require patience and compromise among all parties,” said Esper.
Complications ahead
An Afghan government delegation was also present in Doha to witness the US-Taliban deal, but it did not play a part in it.The Taliban dub the Afghan government a “US puppet” and have been reluctant to establish direct contact with them.
“The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has formed a committee to establish preliminary contact with the Taliban,” Sediq Sediqqi, the spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, told DW ahead of the Doha signing. “We formed it after repeated demands by the Taliban that were conveyed to us by our international allies,” he added.
The Taliban, however, continue to downplay the significance of the Afghan government in the process. US and Taliban negotiators have held several rounds of talks in Doha in the past years, without the active involvement of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government.
“We have not invited the Afghan government delegation to Doha. If the US has invited them, it does not concern us,” Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s spokesman in Doha and a member of the group’s negotiating team, told DW.
“We will proceed according to the framework agreed in the deal with the US. The framework is clear — we’ll first sign the deal, which will be followed by a trust-building phase,” Shaheen said. “During the trust-building phase, 5,000 of our prisoners in Afghan jails, and 1,000 prisoners who belong to the Afghan government, will be released. Only after these steps can an intra-Afghan dialogue start.”
