Pentagon press officials are mum today ahead of the 2:30 p.m. expiration of the “reduction in violence” agreement negotiated with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, last Friday. Pentagon officials today would only say that a “significant event” would take place this weekend.
Timing, location, and who might attend could not be confirmed.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement last week that the successful completion of a seven-day reduction in violence would trigger a signing of a U.S.-Taliban peace agreement on Saturday.
“We are preparing for the signing to take place on Feb. 29,” Pompeo said in a statement that day.
The United States currently has an estimated 12,000 troops in Afghanistan supporting two operations, the NATO-led Resolute Support and the terrorism-fighting Freedom Sentinel.
At the Capitol on Thursday, House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith, D-Washington, told journalists he was cautious about a peace deal with the Taliban, but he would be comfortable with reducing boots on the ground to the 8,600 number often stated by Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
“I think it is the best of a series of bad options,” he said of a deal with the Taliban, underscoring that a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan would be “conditions-based.”
Smith told journalists in an Armed Services Committee briefing room that the Taliban is fighting the Islamic State in some places, but al Qaeda affiliates are among the bad players in the neighborhood.
“Envisioning a glide path to reducing our presence level when the Afghan government can handle it on their own, fine,” he said. “If we go too quickly to zero, does that destabilize the situation? Yes.”
Smith said he is aware of the challenges in the region and that trying to integrate the Taliban is the “correct approach.”
“We ought to move forward with a peace plan,” he said. “If we can reduce our presence and the cost of fighting terrorism in Afghanistan, that’s something that we’re going to have to pursue.”
