Doha, Feb 29:
The US and the Taliban, the hardline Islamic group it removed from power in Afghanistan in nearly 19 years ago, this evening inked a peace deal that could see the beginning of the end of the Washington’s longest war. India witnessed the landmark event as an observer.
The deal between the warring side reached after nearly two years of negotiations was signed in the Qatari capital Doha by US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
Ahead of the signing of the deal, the US and the Taliban had agreed to a seven-day cooling-off period which passed peacefully. The truce came last Friday night.
Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, a member of the Taliban’s office in Qatar, said that the peace deal is a historic day for Afghanistan after nearly two decades of war, and that “the US guaranteed that 5,000 prisoners would be released before the intra-Afghan talks.”
US President Donald Trump, who is seeking a re-election this November, is looking to make good on his campaign promise to bring troops home and to extricate America from “endless wars.”
In a statement released earlier by the White House, Trump said that if the Taliban and Afghan Governments lived up to the commitments in the agreement, “we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home.”
“These commitments represent an important step to a lasting peace in a new Afghanistan, free from Al-Qaida, ISIS and any other terrorist group that would seek to bring us harm,” Trump said. (UNI)
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