The Taliban has called on US president-elect Joe Biden to honor an agreement to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan by May to secure intra-Afghan peace talks and end the two-decades-long war.
“Steps must now be taken to end the war, not to prolong it, and the agreement was made for the purpose,” Mohammad Naeem, a senior spokesman in the Taliban’s political office in Doha, said on Monday, referring to their accord with the US, which was signed in February last year and paves the way for a complete withdrawal of US troops by May in exchange for Taliban security guarantees.
“The lack of complete implementation of the agreement can affect the ongoing process of negotiations,” he added.
Photo: AP
The call from the insurgent group comes just days after the US reduced its troop levels from 4,500 to 2,500 at US President Donald Trump’s direction, despite opposition from US Republican and Democratic lawmakers, who have warned of the potential effects on counterterrorism operations.
Naeem cheered the reduction on Twitter, writing that the move was a “good advancement.”
While it is unclear whether Biden would withdraw all US troops by the May deadline, his nominee for national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told CNN earlier this month that the new administration would support “diplomacy” with the Taliban, urging the insurgent group to cut ties with al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, ensure a reduction in violence and participate in “good-faith negotiations” with the Afghan government.
International Crisis Group senior analyst Andrew Watkins said that the withdrawal deadline of May 1 is the biggest early challenge for the peace process and the most urgent decision for the Biden team.
“If the Biden administration ignores the deadline set down in the US-Taliban agreement without discussing and clearing a delay with the insurgents, the Taliban will almost certainly respond by escalating their use of force — either via attacks on population centers, facilities housing international troops or both,” Watkins said on Monday.
A reduction in US troops — who provide air support to Afghan forces — would not affect the ability of Afghan forces to push back against the Taliban, Afghan National Security Council spokesman Rahmatullah Andar said.
The Afghan government and the Taliban resumed negotiations early this month under the shadow of a series of targeted killings of journalists, government employees and human rights advocates.
On Sunday, in the latest unclaimed gun attack in the capital Kabul, two female Afghan Supreme Court judges were killed on their way to work, the Afghan Presidential Palace said in a statement.
“The Taliban should understand that such actions for which it bears responsibility outrage the world and must cease if peace is to come to Afghanistan,” Ross Wilson, charge d’affairs at the US embassy in Kabul, wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
The US negotiating team is pushing harder for a ceasefire agreement first before negotiating other key agenda items with the Taliban, but the group wants to declare a ceasefire in the final stages of the talks.
“Much will depend upon how the Biden administration responds to the failure of the intra-Afghan dialogue component of these negotiations,” said Kamran Bokhari, director of analytical development at the Washington-based Center for Global Policy. “We will likely see a resumption of air strikes, increased intelligence ops and the use of special operations forces to support Afghan National Security Forces, who will be doing the heavy lifting.”
“The goal will be to force the Taliban back to the table and be able to negotiate more effectively with the insurgents,” he added.
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