Both U.S. and Taliban officials could sign a peace agreement this week, with the goal of starting an unprecedented round of negotiations between the militants and the U.S.-backed central government.
“All sides are tired of fighting,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters Tuesday at the State Department. “We’ve arrived at a historic opportunity for peace. It won’t be easy to obtain. We should seize the moment.”
That idea is being tested by a so-called reduction in violence agreement, a seven-day pact scheduled to end Saturday. If that deal holds, the United States and the Taliban will sign a deal that trades “phased” troop withdrawals, Pompeo said, for a Taliban pledge to renounce terrorism and to begin negotiations with the Afghan government in Kabul.
“We’re not required to leave unless they can demonstrate they’re fulfilling every element of their end of the bargain,” Pompeo said. “This agreement also entails respect for the Afghan people. It’s a declaration that the future of their country resides in their hands, not ours.”
The signing of that deal would be the culmination of a process underway since last January, when Zalmay Khalilzad, the State Department’s lead negotiator for Afghanistan, unveiled a “framework” for a peace deal with the Taliban. His announcement stirred fear that a withdrawal of U.S. forces, negotiated amid Taliban “momentum” on the battlefield, would lead to the collapse of the Afghan government, especially given the emergence of a dangerous and resilient affiliate of the Islamic State in northern Afghanistan.
Khalilzad’s efforts were derailed temporarily by a Taliban attack that killed a U.S. soldier in August, but U.S. officials revealed last week that a breakthrough was underway, drawing cautious approval from Congress.
“Hopefully, this will lead to a sustained reduction in violence, a constructive intra-Afghan dialogue — including participation by women and minorities — and ultimately, the withdrawal of the U.S. troops,” House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel said last week. “The success of this approach will depend on the Taliban’s willingness to keep its commitments, including separating from al Qaeda and renouncing violence.”
Afghan officials have been alarmed by the negotiations, protesting that they were initially cut out of the process by Khalilzad. And Ambassador Roya Rahmani, the Afghan ambassador to the U.S., has urged the Trump administration to ensure that the Taliban will not be able to resume the repression of women in the country.
“We’re all eyes wide open about the complexity, the challenges,” Pompeo said when asked about the place of women’s rights in the negotiations. “There’s a reason that it’s been this long since they’ve sat at the table together. They have deeply divergent views. But I am confident that the wide range of persons who ought to have a seat at the table, who ought to have the capacity to yield an Afghanistan government that is formed out of this consensus, will address all of the issues that you’ve discussed.”
