Soldiers patrol Kabul after attack on maternity hospital on May 12, 2020. - CHINA NEW / SIPA

The words of the American envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, are clear: "There is no alternative". The United States will therefore withdraw its troops from Afghanistan after almost 19 years of war. But before leaving, Washington wants to save the peace process despite a new wave of violence.

Taliban and government do not argue

After spending more than a year negotiating the historic agreement signed on February 29 by Washington and the Taliban, Zalmay Khalilzad has therefore resumed his shuttle between Kabul and Doha to put pressure on the Afghan government and the Taliban. Objective: put back on track an effort that threatens every day a little more to collapse.

The agreement paved the way for a total withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan by mid-2021. But unprecedented direct peace negotiations between the rebels and the Kabul government, which were supposed to start over two months ago, have gone unheeded. And President Ashraf Ghani has just announced the resumption of offensives against the Taliban. It must be said that violence also resumed: Tuesday an attack on a maternity hospital in the capital, killed 24 people including newborns. In order not to ruin the efforts of recent months, the United States quickly took care to clear the Taliban, accusing the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) of being behind this "appalling" act.

Failure to record the failure of the peace effort

But, "the American strategy does not take into account the anger of the Afghan opinion, nor that of the Afghan government, vis-a-vis this particularly horrible surge of violence even in an Afghanistan however accustomed to the horrors", analyzes Michael Kugelman, of the circle of Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars reflection. In fact, we feel in the Americans a desire not to record the failure of their unprecedented peace effort.

Zalmay Khalilzad thus assured Friday that the insurgents respected their part of the contract conditioning the American withdrawal, in any case "the letter" of the agreement of February 29. They do not attack the American forces and refrain from attacking the main cities, he noted, stressing that they had not yet formally committed to cease all offensive against the Afghan forces. On the other hand, he recognized that the high level of violence was not in accordance with the "spirit" of the commitments, as was testified again on Thursday by a "very negative" attack against the Afghan army claimed by the Taliban in the is from the country.

Anti-terrorism: a key condition

"The key condition for the United States is that the Taliban keep their commitment to counterterrorism", by countering groups like Al-Qaida or IS, the diplomat argued. The start of inter-Afghan negotiations does not therefore seem to be an absolute condition for the continuation of the American disengagement.

In Washington, despite the approach of the presidential election in November, Donald Trump's desire to end this "endless war" is fairly consensual. Only a handful of neoconservatives continue to criticize concessions deemed too generous to the Taliban.

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  • Kabul
  • United States
  • World
  • Terrorism
  • Afghanistan
  • Peace