ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE: Reuters
After almost two decades of the war in Afghanistan, Washington seems to be about to admit its lose in the conflict with the Taliban.
On March 12, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad reavealed that the US and the Talibah had “agreed in draft” on the US troops withdrawal from the war-torn country.
(2/4) Peace requires agreement on four issues: counter-terrorism assurances, troop withdrawal, intra-Afghan dialogue, and a comprehensive ceasefire. In January talks, we "agreed in principle" on these four elements. We're now "agreed in draft" on the first two.
— U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad (@US4AfghanPeace) March 12, 2019
(4/4) My next step is discussions in Washington and consultations with other partners. We will meet again soon, and there is no final agreement until everything is agreed.
— U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad (@US4AfghanPeace) March 12, 2019
Another issue, which already included in this ‘draft’ agreement is the counter-terrorism effort. However, it remains unclear what this mean in the case of the US-Taliban talks. First of all, Washington has been for a long time considering the Taliban a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda. The second porblem is that the US has indirectly and sometimes directly (if we take into account ‘mysterious activity’ of US helicopters) assisted ISIS in Afghanistan in order to undermine the Taliban influence.
HINT: Following the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, the US accused the Taliban of harboring their alleged mastermind, Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. This became a formal justification for the US invasion in Afghanistan in late 2001. Bin Laden was eventually located in neighboring Pakistan and killed in a May 2011 raid. However, the war against the Taliban continued without a real sucess. The US-backed Kabul government is in fact controlling only about a half of the country.
According to Khalilzad remarks, he’s now returning from Qatar’s Doha to Washington to consult “with other partners”. He also added that “there is no final agreement until everything is agreed”. However, even if the final agreement is not reached this time, the US has already admitted that the Taliban is not just a terrorist group, but a legal side of the Afghan conflict. This opens additional prospects for the Afghan movement, which is obviously strengthening its influence.
