The new US administration has announced a review of last year's Afghan peace deal with the Taliban. It would also assess whether the Islamist group was holding up their end of the agreement.
As part of the agreement, the Taliban promised it would participate in peace talks with the Afghan government aimed at ending the country's warImage: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Maqbool
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The United States will review the peace agreement struck with the Taliban signed last year, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told his Afghan counterpart in a call on Friday.
Sullivan "made clear the United States' intention to review the February 2020 US-Taliban agreement, including an assessment of whether the Taliban was living up to its commitments to cut ties with terrorist groups, to reduce violence in Afghanistan, and to engage in meaningful negotiations with the Afghan government and other stakeholders," the White House said in a statement.
US President Joe Biden's pick for his top diplomat also said earlier this week that he would undertake a review of the deal with the Taliban.
"We want to end this so-called forever war. We want to bring our forces home. We want to retain some capacity to deal with any resurgence of terrorism, which is what brought us there in the first place," Antony Blinken, Biden's nominee for secretary of state, told his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
"We have to look carefully at what has actually been negotiated. I haven't been privy to it yet."
The US-Taliban agreement came with annexes that remain classified, leading to criticism in the US that there were secret understandings with the Taliban.
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What's at stake?
The US signed a peace deal with the Taliban in the final year of Donald Trump's presidency, paving the way for the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan — a longstanding demand of the Islamist group.
The agreement, signed on February 29 in Doha, laid out a 14-month period for the withdrawal of "all military forces of the United States, its allies, and Coalition partners, including all non-diplomatic civilian personnel, private security contractors, trainers, advisors, and supporting services personnel."
Weeks ahead of the 2020 election, Trump said all US soldiers stationed in the war-torn country would return home by Christmas this year, an announcement welcomed by the Taliban.
But when President Joe Biden took office, 2,500 troops were still stationed in Afganistan — the lowest levels in the conflict began in 2001.
In return, the Taliban agreed to not allow extremists to operate from Afghanistan and give some security guarantees. It also agreed to participate in peace talks with the Afghan government aimed at ending the country's war.
The first session of the second round of talks began on January 6 in Doha but there has been no significant announcement about how negotiations were proceeding.
The government accused the Islamist group of failing to actively participate in the peace talks.
"The Taliban not only did not reduce the violence, but they increased the violence," said Waheed Omar, media advisor to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
Endless battle for power in Afghanistan
Seventeen years after the US invasion of Afghanistan, the war-torn country remains in the grip of Islamist violence. A string of deadly attacks in the last year suggests militants are stronger than ever.
Image: picture alliance/Photoshot
Fragile security
Repeated attacks in Afghanistan in 2018 and 2019 have killed and wounded hundreds of innocent Afghans, and shown the world the fragile and worsening state of security in the conflict-stricken country. The incidents have plunged war-weary Afghan citizens into a state of despair and highlighted the limitations faced by the government in Kabul in ensuring public security.
Image: Reuters/M. Ismail
A long series of attacks
The violent incidents have made Afghanistan once again a staple of international headlines. Outfits like the Taliban and the "Islamic State" (IS) have claimed responsibility for the attacks. The Afghan government is under heavy pressure to restore security and take back territory controlled by a number of insurgent groups, including the Taliban and IS.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Hossaini
Spring offensive
In 2018, the Taliban announced the start of their annual spring offensive, dismissing an offer of peace talks by President Ashraf Ghani. The militants, fighting to restore their version of strict Islamic law to Afghanistan, said their campaign was a response to a more aggressive US military strategy adopted in 2017, which aims to force the militants into peace talks.
Image: Reuters
Trump's Afghanistan policy
US President Donald Trump unveiled a new strategy for Afghanistan in 2017, vowing to deploy more troops to train and advise Afghan security forces. Trump also pledged to support Afghan troops in their war against the Taliban and maintain US presence in the country for as long as there was a need for it. In 2019, he reversed course and promised a troop pullout.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/B. Smialowski
Afghan peace process
Despite President Ghani's offer in February 2018 for peace talks "without preconditions," the Taliban had until 2019 shown no interest, dismissing the peace overtures as a "conspiracy."
Image: Getty Images/AFP/N. Shirzad
Pakistani support
Pakistan has been under pressure from Kabul and Washington to stop offering safe havens to militants blamed for attacks in Afghanistan, a charge Islamabad denies and insists that its influence over the insurgents has been exaggerated. Kabul and Islamabad regularly trade accusations of harboring the other country's militants and the harsh language has underscored the strains between them.
Image: DW/H. Hamraz
Role of the warlords
Apart from the Taliban, Afghan warlords exercise massive influence in the country. Last year, Hizb-i-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar returned to Kabul after a 20-year exile to play an active role in Afghan politics. In September 2016, the Afghan government signed a deal with Hekmatyar in the hope that other warlords and militant groups would seek better ties with Kabul.
Image: Reuters/O.Sobhani
An inefficient government
In the midst of an endless battle for power, President Ghani's approval ratings continue to plummet. Rampant corruption in the Afghan government and a long tug-of-war within the US-brokered national unity government has had a negative impact on the government's efforts to eradicate terrorism.
