Afghan Peace Talks

In recent times, Afghan peace talks seem to be between the Afghan government and the Taliban. However, it started between the United States (US) and the Taliban. Taliban is a terrorist organization that emerged in the country after the Soviet Union’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Before the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union, US president Jimmy Carter planned to set up a terrorist organization in Afghanistan called Mujahideen to fight the Soviet forces. People in the US or Afghanistan were unaware that the US was funding extremists which will later become the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. From the Soviet invasion till today, Afghans are suffering a never-ending war due to the US’s thirst for power. After the 9/11 attack, the US sent thousands of troops to Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban, but they were unsuccessful.

In February of 2020, the Taliban agreed to come to peace talks in Doha and discuss the future of Afghanistan with the US, excluding Afghanistan. During the peace talks, the Taliban signed an agreement with the US which included four parts:

1. The withdrawal of US troops, allies, trainers, advisors, Coalition partners, non-diplomatic civilian personnel, and supporting service personnel from Afghanistan within 14 months. 5,000 Taliban prisoners must be released from Afghan prisons by March and the US “commits to completing this goal.” In addition, the Taliban promises that these released prisoners will not pose any threat to the US or allies. However, the question rises that it should be the right of the Afghan government to release or not release the Taliban. These parts lack the mention of the security of Afghans. Additionally, will these prisoners not harm Afghans or launch terrorist attacks on Afghan troops or civilians?

2. The Taliban will not allow any of its members, members of Al-Qaeda, other groups, or individuals to harm or threaten the security of the US and its allies in Afghanistan. Again, the question rises about the security of Afghans.

3. After the guarantee of foreign troops’ withdrawal, the Taliban will start intra-Afghan negotiations in March.

4. The signing of the permanent ceasefire.

After months, the Afghan government has been left with no choice but to release the 5,000 Taliban prisoners. Luckily, the Taliban remained to their promise with the US to not harm any US troops. However, Afghan civilians and troops have been continuously targeted and killed by both the released prisoners and the other Taliban. After six months the Taliban agreed to come to intra-Afghan negotiations and talk about the political roadmap and control of the country. However, they did not reach any agreements and conclusions, they delayed the pace of talks to the second round.

As one can guess, the Taliban delayed the second round of peace talks and were absent on that day. Even when the second round of the talks happened, there were no conclusions or agreements. From the beginning of the peace talks, the violence against the civilians has increased very much and the United Nations predicts that in the first 6 months of 2020 approximately 1,300 civilians have been killed by the Taliban. Now, there is no sign of peace or ending of violence in the country and again in these talks, Afghans have remained unfavoured.

Written By: Farkhunda A.

Edited By: Happy J.

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Works cited:

Al Jazeera. “Full Text: What Does the Taliban-US Agreement Say?” Taliban News | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 29 Feb. 2020, www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/2/29/what-does-the-taliban-us-agreement-say.

Amiry, Sharif. “Increased Afghan Insecurity Will Have Global Impact: Ghani.” TOLOnews, tolonews.com/afghanistan-169892.

Javaid, Osama Bin. “Why Afghanistan-Taliban Peace Talks Have Not Reached Breakthrough.” Taliban News | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 13 Jan. 2021, www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/12/why-have-the-afghanistan-taliban-peace-talks-stalled.

Qazi, Shereena. “Talks between Afghan Government and Taliban Open in Qatar.” Humanitarian Crises News | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 12 Sept. 2020, www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/12/talks-between-afghan-government-and-taliban-open-in-qatar.