Afghan president Ashraf Ghani is insisting that his administration will be the final arbiter of any agreement the United States and the Taliban might reach.
“At the end of any peace deal, the decision-maker will be the government of Afghanistan,” Ghani said in a television interview with TOLO News on Tuesday.
The Taliban has resisted negotiations with the Afghan government, and although recent meetings of U.S. and Taliban representatives were reportedly productive, multiple media reports indicate Ghani was frustrated at being excluded from the discussions. Ghani said Tuesday that “no power in the country can dissolve the government” and that he’s prepared to “stand and defend our country.”
“Rest assured that no one can push us aside,” Ghani declared.
According to U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad, discussions with the Taliban in Qatar last month were “more productive than they have been in the past.” Khalilzad shared few specifics, but the two sides reportedly agreed on a draft framework to pull U.S. troops from Afghanistan in the future — one of the Taliban’s top priorities.
The Taliban also purportedly agreed to bar al Qaeda and the Islamic State from entering Afghanistan and plotting terrorist attacks from the country, a move Ghani welcomed.
“The Taliban said they are ready to sever ties with al Qaeda and the Islamic State, and this is a good development,” Ghani said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the American military commander in charge of Afghanistan operations stressed that no agreements with the Taliban have been finalized, saying that the “framework” was established to allow discussions to advance. He also emphasized that the United States is still committed to ensuring the peace talks are “Afghan-led and Afghan-owned.”
“Ultimately, we need to get to a Taliban-Afghanistan discussion, only they will be able to resolve the key issues involved in the dispute,” Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Acting Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan said last week that he has not been instructed to pull out any of the approximately 14,000 U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Khalilzad is slated to meet with the Taliban again on Feb. 25.
