US gets ready for deal with Taliban

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has started preparations to sign a historic peace deal with the Taliban that will bring nearly 17-year-long US-led war in Afghanistan to an end, with the former wanting the latter to guarantee that Afghanistan no longer becomes a safe haven for terrorists.

A Taliban spokesman on Wednesday said they were close to reaching a final peace agreement with the US. After reaching a tentative deal with the Taliban during the ninth round of talks in Doha, Khalilzad is expected to travel to Kabul for two to three days to seek Ghani’s approval.

Khalilzad would then return to Doha to sign the pact with the Taliban’s chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. The final pact, which is being translated into Dari and Pashto, will call for the phased withdrawal of some US troops over the next 15 to 18 months — just in time for the 2020 US presidential election.

It will include a ceasefire, detail verifiable assurances that the Taliban will not permit terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda or the Islamic State to maintain a toehold in territory under their control, and set a date for intra-Afghan talks in Oslo, Norway.

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper who was confirmed as the Pentagon chief just one month ago told reporters that talks with the Taliban in Qatar must guarantee that Afghanistan was no longer a safe haven for terrorists to attack the United States.

General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a deal on drawing down the 13,000 US troops in the country after fighting for nearly two decades to what many call a stalemate must not leave space for Al Qaeda and other US-designated terror organizations to continue their activities.

I am not using the withdrawal word right now, Dunford said standing next to Esper. “I’m using we’re going to make sure that Afghanistan is not a sanctuary and we’re going to try to have an effort to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan,” he said.

Dunford said it was clear that there needed to be a negotiated solution and one that involved not just the United States but the Afghan government. “I view any agreement that would be pending is something we are doing with not to the Afghan people. What is needed is some type of disruption to the status quo,” he said.

I think an agreement that can initiate inter-Afghan dialogue potentially leading to a reduction in violence associated with the insurgency is something that’s worth trying. I think any of us who have served there have long known that what’s going to be required is a negotiated peace settlement. We want stability for the Afghan people,” he said.

Amid concerns that the Afghan government forces are not yet capable of confronting IS which has mounted repeated deadly attacks against the military and civilians, Dunford declined to say whether the Pentagon was planning to keep counter terror operations active in the country over the years to come.

Any agreement is going to be conditions based, he said and it is premature to talk about what our counter terrorism presence in Afghanistan may or may not be. The president and the secretary have made it quite clear to me that as this progresses we ensure that our counter terrorism objectives are addressed.”

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump Thursday said US troop levels in Afghanistan will drop to 8,600 if a deal was reached with the Taliban and that a permanent presence will remain.

"We´re going down to 8,600 and then we make a determination from there," Trump said in an interview with Fox News radio. "We´re always going to have a presence."

Trump also said that if another attack on the United States originated from Afghanistan "we would come back with a force like... never before." Trump underlined that there was to be no complete withdrawal, keeping a force that would provide "high intelligence."

"You have to keep a presence," he said. Meantime, the Russian foreign ministry Wednesday said Moscow was ready to be a guarantor of any peace deal agreed between the United States and the Taliban.

“The Russian side is ready to be the third party at the signing or a guarantor of how the deal between the United States and the Taliban movement is implemented,” the TASS news agency quoted ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.

Russia, which as the Soviet Union waged a 10-year war in Afghanistan throughout the 1980s, has actively supported efforts to reach a peace settlement in the country.

Talking to TASS on Thursday, Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan and Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Second Asian Department Zamir Kabulov said, "I am unaware of the details of the agreement. I know what everyone else does. All they say is that they are close to completing and almost reached [an agreement]. However, I have not yet received full confirmation from US Special Representative Khalilzad. He promised to send it before long, I am waiting for it," Kabulov noted that he viewed his dialogue with the US envoy in a positive light. "We have businesslike, working relationship, and we interact well," he stressed.