The top American military commander in charge of Afghanistan told Congress Tuesday that reports of a tentative peace deal with the Taliban have been overstated.
“First of all, there have been no agreements that have actually been finalized,” said Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command, in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Votel was being questioned by Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., about reports in the New York Times and elsewhere last month that U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad had agreed in principle to a framework deal under which the Taliban would guarantee Afghan territory is never used by terrorists.
Votel said the “framework” was a means for “continuing discussions moving forward,” simply one step in a long process that would eventually lead to direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
And he insisted that the U.S. was not abandoning the principle that the peace talks had to be “Afghan-led and Afghan-owned.”
“Ambassador Khalilzad’s efforts are done with the knowledge of the government of Afghanistan,” Votel said.
“Ultimately, we need to get to a Taliban, Afghanistan discussion, only they will be able to resolve the key issues involved in the dispute.”
Asked by Sen. Martha McSally R-Ariz., how he would define what winning looks like in Afghanistan after more than 17 years of war.
“It looks like two things to me. It looks like a negotiated settlement, and it looks like safeguarding out national interests,” Votel said. “I think the strategy we have in place is the right one. We’ve got to stay focused on this.”
