Fragile Afghan peace deal in limbo
Print Edition
Afghanistan鈥檚 president announced yesterday he will not free thousands of Taliban prisoners prior to Afghan power-sharing talks set for next week, publicly disagreeing with a timetable for a speedy prisoner release laid out just a day earlier in a US-Taliban peace agreement.
President Ashraf Ghani鈥檚 comments highlight the challenges surrounding the fragile deal, aimed at ending America鈥檚 longest war and convincing rival Afghan factions to agree on their country鈥檚 future.
Still, the US plan to withdraw troops over the next 14 months is linked to the Taliban鈥檚 counter-terrorism performance, not to progress in the power-sharing talks.
Washington鈥檚 Peace Envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, who served as America鈥檚 first ambassador to Afghanistan after its 2001 invasion of the country, spent the past 17 months running intermittent talks with the Taliban to hammer out the agreement.
The US-Taliban deal signed Saturday in Qatar calls for the release of up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners by the Afghan government ahead of talks between Afghan factions scheduled to begin March 10 in Oslo, Norway. The Taliban would release up to 1,000 prisoners.
Ghani said the release of any prisoners is a decision for his government 鈥 not the US 鈥 and he is not prepared to release prisoners before negotiations begin.
鈥淭he US requested the prisoner release and it can be part of the negotiations but it cannot be a precondition,鈥 Ghani said.
The US-Taliban deal is seen as a historic opportunity to extricate the US from Afghanistan, where it has spent more than 18 years battling the Taliban.
The central-Asian country has been convulsed by conflict since the Soviet invasion in 1979.
The peace agreement could quickly unravel, especially if the Taliban fails to deliver on a promise to eliminate terrorist attacks launched from Afghan soil.
The talks between squabbling Afghan political factions and the Taliban are even more intricate, even if their failure doesn鈥檛 impede the withdrawal of American forces.
Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammad bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the prisoner exchange is an important confidence-building measure.
鈥淓verything is interconnected,鈥 he said about the agreement鈥檚 14-month timeframe. 鈥淭he prisoner exchange will be one of the first confidence-building measures, so it will remain a very critical step that we need to push forward.鈥
US officials, travelling with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on his return to America, said the agreement stipulates up to 5,000 prisoners would be released, without referring specifically to Ghani鈥檚 statements.
President Donald Trump said Saturday he will be 鈥渕eeting personally with Taliban leaders in the not-too-distant future,鈥 and described the group as 鈥渢ired of war.鈥 He did not say where talks with the Taliban would take place.
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