• Interview.Farahnaz Forotan: the journalist who marks the red lines to the Taliban
  • Afghanistan: The US and the Taliban agree to reduce violence to agree to peace

The US and the Taliban sign a historic agreement in Doha on Saturday that paves the way for the withdrawal of US troops, after more than 18 years of war in Afghanistan , and for peace negotiations that are expected to be arduous.

Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State, is in Doha for the signing of this pact, where it has been announced that the US wants to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan within 14 months. The US will reduce to 8,600 soldiers its military detachment in Afghanistan, which currently has about 14,000, in a period of 135 days after the rubric of this pact, and in 14 months all foreign troops will leave the country if the agreement is fulfilled.

"The United States will implement other commitments in the agreement within 135 days after signing", says the joint statement of the Governments of the United States and Afghanistan made public in Kabul shortly before the signing of the agreement in Qatar.

The document goes on to say that the remaining foreign military forces will be reduced "proportionately for an equivalent period, subject to the Taliban's fulfillment of their commitments under the" peace agreement, so that in 14 months "all" forces of the Coalition leave the Asian country.

The agreement negotiated for a year and a half in Qatar, and that US envoys and insurgents must sign around 12, Spanish peninsular time, is not a peace agreement itself.

The Afghan authorities have been left out of these unprecedented direct negotiations for now. In this phase only a "reduction of violence" is foreseen and not a true ceasefire.

"We are at the dawn of a historic opportunity for peace," Pompeo said before his trip, when the signing day approached, while a Taliban chief, Sirajudin Haqani, said in the New York Times that "everyone" was "tired of war."

Progressive withdrawal

"There is a lot of speculation about the content of the agreement," says Andrew Watkins of the International Crisis Group conflict prevention organization. "We know the main lines, but we don't even know for sure if all the terms of the agreement will be made public."

In September the firm was imminent but was suddenly canceled by Donald Trump, who then mentioned the death of an American soldier in a nth attack in Kabul.

This time, the belligerents agreed on a one-week period of "violence reduction," globally respected on the ground, and ending this Saturday.

Unless there is a last-minute incident, US negotiators will be able to sign this pact that the US president will exhibit in the campaign for his re-election in eight months as the fulfillment of a promise: to end the longest war in the United States.

Under the agreement concluded, the US military will begin withdrawing from Afghanistan , a key claim of the Taliban, who in turn will commit to prohibiting any act of terrorism from the territories they control and to enter into peace negotiations with the Kabul government, with the one that until now have refused to talk.

Despite criticism from some observers who believe it grants too much for too little, the Trump administration says the anti-terrorism guarantees provided by the insurgents respond to the main reason for the US intervention, launched in retaliation for the September 11 attacks of 2001 warmed by al Qaeda from Afghanistan, then led by the Taliban.

Initially, Americans should reduce their troops from some 13,000 current soldiers to 8,600 in the coming months . The schedule of subsequent withdrawals is more vague, although Trump insists he wants to "bring the boys home" and "end the endless wars."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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