Taliban negotiators reach Qatar to sign a deal with the US to end the Afghan war

By Muhammad YaseenPublished On 04 Jan 2023

DOHA: A 31-member Taliban delegation has arrived in Qatar to sign a US troop withdrawal deal that could end the war in Afghanistan, officials of the group said on Saturday.

The United States and Taliban in Afghanistan are poised to sign a peace deal in the presence of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that is part of a wider push for Afghan reconciliation and an end to the longest US war.

The signing ceremony between the warring sides is set to take place in Qatar’s capital of Doha.

President Donald Trump urged the Afghan people to embrace the chance for a new future, saying the deal held out the possibility of ending the 18-year conflict.

Afghan officials to meet Taliban ahead of US troop withdrawal agreement

“If the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan live up to these commitments, we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home,” he said on the eve of the event.

Trump said he was sending Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to witness the signing of the treaty, and that Defense Secretary Mark Esper would separately issue a joint declaration with the Kabul government.

The agreement is expected to lead to a dialogue between the Kabul government and the Taliban that, if successful, could ultimately see the Afghan war winding down.

But the position of the Afghan government, which has been excluded from direct US-Taliban talks, remains unclear and the country is gripped by a fresh political crisis amid contested election results.

The deal, drafted over a tempestuous year of dialogue marked by the abrupt cancellation of the effort by Trump in September, is expected to lay out a timetable for a US force withdrawal.

The US, Afghan Taliban deal raises hope for peace

“There’s been so much speculation about the contents of the deal… we know the broad outlines but it’s not even clear whether the full terms of the deal will be made public,” said Andrew Watkins, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group consultancy.

While Kabul will not be represented at the Doha signing, set for around 1245 GMT, it will send a six-person task force to the Qatari capital to make initial contact with the Taliban political office, established in 2013.

As many as 30 nations are expected to be represented at Saturday’s signing in the Qatari capital. The US will stage a separate ceremony in Kabul with the Afghan government at 1215 GMT, an Afghan source told AFP.

The inking of the deal will come after a week-long, partial truce that has mostly held across Afghanistan aimed at building confidence between the warring parties and showing the Taliban can control their forces.

While isolated attacks have continued in rural areas, Pompeo said Tuesday that the truce period was “working”.

“We’re on the cusp of an enormous, enormous political opportunity,” he said.

The US, which currently has between 12,000 and 13,000 troops in Afghanistan, could draw that number down to 8,600 within months of the agreement being signed.