Washington (AFP)

The United States will resume talks with the Taliban in the coming days, hoping to find an agreement that will allow Donald Trump to sound the reminder of US troops in Afghanistan after 18 years of conflict.

The main US negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, was to leave the United States on Tuesday to reach Doha, just ten days after the end of the latest round of negotiations with insurgents in the capital of Qatar, announced the State Department American.

The two parties, which began a year ago this direct and unprecedented dialogue, had then hailed "excellent progress".

But since then, the violence has been a reminder of how difficult it will be to end the oldest war in the United States, unleashed by the invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of the attacks of 11 September 2001 to dislodge power. the Taliban, accused of protecting the al-Qaeda jihadist network.

On Saturday, a suicide bomber from the Islamic State group (IS) blew himself up at a wedding in Kabul, leaving 63 dead and more than 180 wounded.

"We must accelerate the Afghan peace process, including inter-Afghan negotiations," Zalmay Khalilzad said, saying that only a successful outcome of these talks would enable Afghans to "defeat IS."

The Trump administration does not hide its hope that this new round of talks in Doha could be the last and lead to a historic agreement with the insurgents. But a breakthrough has already been announced as imminent on several occasions since early August.

- "Reduce violence" -

The US envoy must in any case then go to Kabul for further consultations with "Afghan government leaders on the peace process" and to "encourage" preparations for inter-Afghan negotiations, according to the US State Department . Other travel to partner countries or Afghanistan's neighbors can not be ruled out to finalize the Taliban deal.

The major axes of a possible agreement are known.

It should first of all provide for a more or less complete US military withdrawal, with a timetable to the key, to hold a commitment of the President of the United States, who has promised for a long time to put an end to the "endless wars" deemed too costly.

This is the main demand of the Taliban who would in return commit that the territories they control can no longer be used by "terrorist" organizations. The insurgents would also agree, for the first time, to start peace negotiations with the Kabul government, which could start very quickly in Oslo.

A truce between the Taliban and the Americans, or at least a "reduction of violence", should also be included in the text, but not at this stage a general cease-fire that will depend on progress made subsequently in Oslo.

But the modalities, scale and timing of the US withdrawal, still unknown, raise many fears from a part of the political class and observers in Washington who fear the eagerness of Donald Trump to leave Afghanistan before the presidential election of 2020 in the United States, to which he will seek a second term, at the risk of aggravating the civil war and revive the terrorist threat.

"Our desire is to create the conditions on the ground to do what President Trump promised, that is, to reduce an" operation "that costs the taxpayer $ 30.35 billion a year. than American lives, "US Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo told CNBC on Tuesday.

"If violence can be reduced, we will pave the way for a withdrawal not only of American support, but also of NATO forces," he added, seeming to clearly link the departure of international troops to a real lull. in the field.

© 2019 AFP