The United States has signed an agreement with Taliban rebels that could pave the way for a complete withdrawal of foreign soldiers from Afghanistan in the next 14 months and represent a step towards the end of the 18-year war.
The deal was signed in the Qatari capital of Doha by the United States Special Envoy Zalmay khalilzad and by the Taliban political leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. The American secretary of state Mike Pompeo attended the ceremony.
The United States Secretary of Defense Mark Esper He said that while the deal is a good start, the road ahead is not an easy one. "This is a moment of hope, but it is only the beginning. The road ahead will not be easy. Achieving lasting peace in Afghanistan will require patience and compromises between all sides"Said Esper, who met with the Afghan president Ashraf Ghani in Kabul.
The United States has declared that it is committed to reducing the number of troops in Afghanistan to 8.600 - from the current 13.000 - within 135 days of the signing of the agreement and to work with the allies to proportionately reduce the number of the coalition in Afghanistan, if the Taliban respect their commitments.
For the President of the United States Donald Trump, the Doha Agreement represents an opportunity to deliver on its promise to bring U.S. troops home.
But security experts also called it a foreign policy gamble because it gave the Taliban international legitimacy.
"Today is a monumental day for Afghanistan, "Wrote the US embassy in Kabul on Twitter. "It is a question of making peace concrete and creating a brighter common future. We are with Afghanistan".
Ghana He said he hoped the Doha agreement will pave the way for lasting peace. "Hopefully peace between the United States and the Taliban will lead to a permanent ceasefire ... The nation is looking forward to a complete ceasefire.or ”he said at the press conference in Kabul.
The Afghan government has said it is ready to negotiate and conclude a ceasefire with the Taliban and has affirmed its support for the gradual withdrawal of US forces and the coalition.
NATO has also committed to adapting the levels of coalition troops already in the first phase, bringing the number from around 16.000 to 12.000. "We entered together in 2001, we will adjust (troop levels) together and when the time comes, we will go away together, but we will go away only when the conditions are right"Said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Hours before the deal, the Taliban ordered fighters in Afghanistan to "refrain from any kind of attack ... for the happiness of the nation".
"We hope that the United States will keep its promises during the negotiations and the peace agreement", he has declared Zabiullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Islamist group.
For millions of Afghans, the deal represents hope for the end of years of bloodshed. "My country deserves peace. Today is the day when perhaps we will see a positive change"He said Javed Hassan, 38 years old, a school teacher who lives on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, Kabul. Hassan's children were killed in a bomb explosion by the Taliban in 2018. Since then he has written letters to world leaders to urge them to end the Afghan war.
The war, which killed tens of thousands of people, began when the United States launched attacks on Afghanistan a few weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the twin towers in New York and Washington by the group of al Qaeda based in Afghanistan.
Washington has accused the Taliban of hosting al Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden. With the allies, the US ousted the group from power. But the Taliban remained and still control about 40% of the Afghan territory.
The prospects for peace
The prospects for peace remain uncertain as the next step is to reach an agreement with the Afghan government. Older members of the Afghan government and the countries surrounding Afghanistan have always feared that the United States could abandon Kabul as happened when the former Soviet Union had left Afghanistan decades ago.
The deal also comes in a fragile political situation in Afghanistan. The Independent Electoral Commission declared on February 18 that Ghani won the September 28 elections, despite allegations of irregularities.
The Afghan who lost the election Abdullah Abdullah disputed the results by claiming to be the winner and promising to appoint a parallel government.
Reuter reports that Michael Kugelman, assistant director of Asia Program at the Wilson Center, analyzed Esper's trip to Kabul. “Washington is trying to show that the US is behind this agreement and also wants to show Kabul how peace and the reconciliation process is now moving towards a formal beginning. Esper's trip is perhaps an indication that the United States is ready to accept the new government in Afghanistan ”.
According to the agreement, the Taliban want 5.000 fighters to be released from prisons run by the Afghan interim government.
There is no commitment from the government to free 5 thousand Taliban prisoners. " The President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, said this in the aftermath of the historic peace agreement signed between the US and the Taliban, thus rejecting one of the key components of the agreement that would end 19 years of war in the country. "We did not commit to release 5 thousand prisoners," said Ghani. “This is the right and will of the Afghan people. It could be included on the agenda of intra-Afghan talks, but it cannot be a prerequisite for the negotiations, "added Ghani.
There is another doubt. Are all teleban fighters in favor of an agreement with a government backed by Washington? Many of them could join the Islamic State, present in Afghanistan, pouring skills and knowledge of the territory.