Well, that didn’t take very long. Less than one day after officials touted the peace agreement with the Taliban in Badghis province, the Taliban denounced it. Some of us never saw this one coming. The Christian Science Monitor reports:
Here is what Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told the AP about the Badghis deal:
One of two things happened here. Either the Afghan government and those pressuring them to negotiate cut a deal with the wrong people in Badghis, which indicates they don’t even know who the real Taliban players are (unlikely in this case), or the Taliban never intended to keep the peace agreement (very likely). As the Christian Science Monitor reported, Badghis province is an ideal testing ground for negotiations with the Taliban as the Pashtuns there are isolated in a small pocket far from the Pashtun heartlands in the south and east. If a deal can’t be made there, it is unlikely deals can be made in the south and east, where the Taliban control vast tracts of ground and have ready access to safe havens across the border.
