U.S., Taliban deal will not stop attacks on Afghan forces, some Taliban say

[snoop1130]

U.S., Taliban deal will not stop attacks on Afghan forces, some Taliban say

By Abdul Qadir Sediqi, Jibran Ahmed

 

FILE PHOTO - Afghan security forces stand guard near the site of an attack in Jalalabad, Afghanistan March 6, 2019. REUTERS/Parwiz

 

KABUL/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - As U.S. and Taliban negotiators push to wrap up talks aimed at securing the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan, disagreement remains about whether a pact will mean an end to the insurgents’ fight with the U.S.-backed Afghan government.

 

U.S. and Taliban officials have been negotiating in Qatar since last year on an agreement centered on the withdrawal of U.S. forces, and an end to their longest-ever war, in exchange for a Taliban guarantee that international militant groups will not plot from Afghan soil.

 

U.S. negotiators have been pressing the Taliban to agree to peace talks with the Kabul government and to a ceasefire, but a senior Taliban official said that would not happen.

 

“We will continue our fight against the Afghan government and seize power by force,” said the Taliban commander on condition of anonymity.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump is impatient to get U.S. forces out of Afghanistan and end the 18-year war that was launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

 

But there are fears among Afghan officials and U.S. national security aides that a U.S. troop withdrawal could see Afghanistan plunged into a new round of civil war that could herald a return of Taliban rule and international militants, including Islamic State, finding a refuge.

 

Another Taliban commander, who also declined to be identified, said a deal was expected to be signed this week under which U.S. forces, which provide all-important air support to Afghan troops, will stop attacking the Taliban and the militants would end their fight against the U.S. troops.

 

Under the pact, the United States would also cease supporting the Afghan government, the Taliban officials said.

 

“The Americans will not come to the assistance of the Afghan government and its forces in their fight against us,” the first Taliban official said.

 

Zalmay Khalilzad, the veteran Afghan-American diplomat who has been leading negotiations on the U.S. side, however rejected the suggestion that U.S. forces would no longer support the Kabul government, saying “no one should be intimidated or fooled by propaganda”.

 

“Let me be clear: We will defend Afghan forces now and after any agreement with the Talibs,” he wrote on Twitter in reaction to the Reuters report. He added that

“All sides agree Afghanistan’s future will be determined in intra-Afghan negotiations,” he said.

 

The disagreement highlights one of the most sensitive issues surrounding the U.S.-Taliban talks - a resentment among many in the Afghan government that they have been sidelined from talks that will decide the future of their country.

 

It also raises a question over whether the Taliban leadership will be able to impose any peace agreement on field commanders who may be reluctant to give up fighting when they feel on the brink of victory.

 

The Taliban, fighting to expel foreign forces and re-establish a theocratic Islamic state since their ouster in October 2001, have refused to talk to the government, denouncing it as a U.S. puppet although they have raised the possibility of negotiations after the deal on the U.S. withdrawal is struck.

 

‘SEPARATE AGREEMENT’

 

The militants now control more territory than they have since 2001 and the war has ground into a stalemate with casualties rising among civilians as well as combatants.

 

Some 14,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, training and advising Afghan forces and conducting counterinsurgency operations.

 

About 17,000 troops from NATO allies and partners make up a NATO-led train, advise, assist mission called Resolute Support in Afghanistan. Out of those, about 8,000 are from the United States with the others from other NATO members and partners.

 

The Taliban are demanding the withdrawal of all foreign forces.

 

There has been no let-up in the fighting over the past year despite the talks. The United States had not stopped conducting air strikes and helping Afghan forces to destroy camps run by the Taliban and Islamic State fighters, a U.S. official said.

 

Two diplomatic sources with knowledge of the ninth round of talks in Qatar said they expected an agreement to be finalised this week, enabling the U.S. to pull out about 50% of its forces.

 

An end to the fighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces would have to be negotiated separately, they said.

 

“A ceasefire between the Afghan forces and the Taliban requires a separate agreement and deliberations are yet to begin,” said one diplomat who has been monitoring the negotiations in Qatar.

 

“The U.S.-Taliban agreement will stop U.S. from conducting air strikes on the Taliban, and the Taliban will stop insider attacks on the U.S. and other foreign soldiers,” the diplomat said.

 

One Western diplomat said preparations were being made for talks between the rival Afghan sides in Norway. A group of at least 30 Afghans had been identified by the government and its allies to talk to the Taliban.

 

Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Taliban political office in Doha, said negotiations have gone on late into Sunday.

 

The two sides would meet again later on Monday after internal talks in the morning, Shaheen said.

 

“Our meeting with the U.S. team will resume in the early evening,” he said.

 

Most issues had been resolved but a formal agreement had yet to be concluded, he said.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-08-26

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

[Stargeezr]

Isn't  Afghanistan mostly ruled by Tribal means and a US supported government?    Maybe the Taliban is just the tribe right now with lots of weapons.   I do not keep up with the current situation of the country, but it seems to have a corruption problem as well.

Geezer

[JAG]

So the US (and those of us who joined their "coalition") have lost. It was all for nothing, they are now setting the scene for dumping their indigenous allies and departing. 

 

What will be the signal to assemble at the embassy? "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" played on the radio?

[Srikcir]

18 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The militants now control more territory than they have since 2001

A real understatement and a bloodbath should the U.S. leave the Afghan government to its own defense.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2016/08/afghanistan-controls-160823083528213.html

 

 

[HLover]

3 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

A real understatement and a bloodbath should the U.S. leave the Afghan government to its own defense.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2016/08/afghanistan-controls-160823083528213.html

 

 

Versus nation building at the cost of billions that will fail?  What a mess they have nurtured.

[Redline]

The USA is screwed

[lust]

1 hour ago, Redline said:

The USA is screwed

In what sense?

[Redline]

1 hour ago, Redline said:

The USA is screwed

They bailed on another country they attacked killing thousands, and bailing again.  There is really no longer faith that the USA will help anyone that it attacks, and then says it is going to make the country a better free place-no credibility.  It will also return to becoming a staging ground for attacks against Americans.  It’s a death sentence for everyone in the Afghan government.  And, there will be no US presence in a that area, leaving it wide open for Russia and China to exploit, which Russia is already doing.  There are many other issues involved 

[billd766]

1 hour ago, Redline said:

They bailed on another country they attacked killing thousands, and bailing again.  There is really no longer faith that the USA will help anyone that it attacks, and then says it is going to make the country a better free place-no credibility.  It will also return to becoming a staging ground for attacks against Americans.  It’s a death sentence for everyone in the Afghan government.  And, there will be no US presence in a that area, leaving it wide open for Russia and China to exploit, which Russia is already doing.  There are many other issues involved 

IMHO Russia has learned its lesson well over Afghanistan and won't go near the place with a 50 foot barge pole.

 

There is a smell in the air over in Afghanistan that smells a lot like South Vietnam in the 1970s. 

[JAG]

16 hours ago, Redline said:

They bailed on another country they attacked killing thousands, and bailing again.  There is really no longer faith that the USA will help anyone that it attacks, and then says it is going to make the country a better free place-no credibility.  It will also return to becoming a staging ground for attacks against Americans.  It’s a death sentence for everyone in the Afghan government.  And, there will be no US presence in a that area, leaving it wide open for Russia and China to exploit, which Russia is already doing.  There are many other issues involved 

Afghanistan will revert to a primitive tribal society, essentially lost to the modern world. The greater concern is what will happen in Pakistan. You could end up with a nuclear armed primitive tribal society...

[Redline]

20 hours ago, billd766 said:

IMHO Russia has learned its lesson well over Afghanistan and won't go near the place with a 50 foot barge pole.

 

There is a smell in the air over in Afghanistan that smells a lot like South Vietnam in the 1970s. 

They are already building “cooperation, or cultural centers there-not to fight-to influence

[billd766]

4 hours ago, Redline said:

They are already building “cooperation, or cultural centers there-not to fight-to influence

Are they painting a bullseye on each one?

 

Sure as somebody made little green apples the Taliban will destroy them. The Taliban don't want to progress, they wan't to regress 2 or 300 years in the past. 

There most probably be NO education for girls or women, boys and men will be educated at madrassas. All the clocks in Afghanistan will stop and they will start again in the 1800s.

[usviphotography]

On 8/27/2019 at 12:21 AM, JAG said:

So the US (and those of us who joined their "coalition") have lost. It was all for nothing, they are now setting the scene for dumping their indigenous allies and departing. 

 

What will be the signal to assemble at the embassy? "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" played on the radio?

The US has not lost. United States got in the war to defeat Al Qaeda and ensure that Afghanistan is not used as a base of operations for foreign militants ever again. AQ was defeated long ago. If Taliban agrees to other condition then both objectives of the war will have been successfully met from the perspective of America. What type of government Afghanistan has is immaterial to the interests of the American People. Do not confuse Neoconservative schemes with the interests of America. No doubt John McCain will be rolling in his grave when the peace deal is announced, but the American People will consider it a welcome relief. 

[Isaanbiker]

On 8/27/2019 at 11:21 AM, JAG said:

So the US (and those of us who joined their "coalition") have lost. It was all for nothing, they are now setting the scene for dumping their indigenous allies and departing. 

 

What will be the signal to assemble at the embassy? "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" played on the radio?

And all the poor guys who have lost their lives, many of them who had gone insane after fighting for their country, plus the poor souls that got killed by too much "friendly fire".

 

The disabled guys in their wheelchairs, the drug and alcohol addicts to get the shi_e out of their heads what they've seen?

 

 Was that all necessary that America has cheap oil?

 

 

 

[Redline]

23 hours ago, billd766 said:

Are they painting a bullseye on each one?

 

Sure as somebody made little green apples the Taliban will destroy them. The Taliban don't want to progress, they wan't to regress 2 or 300 years in the past. 

There most probably be NO education for girls or women, boys and men will be educated at madrassas. All the clocks in Afghanistan will stop and they will start again in the 1800s.

Agreed-it is a tragedy for Afghanistan.  It was modern before the Soviet invasion