Afghan Taliban militants and villagers attend a gathering as they celebrate the peace deal in the Afghan conflict with the U.S. in Afghanistan, in Alingar district of Laghman Province on March 2, 2020.
**Originally published in The Cornell Review dated March 29, 2020*
On February 29, 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed the Afghan Peace Deal. The deal is a landmark attempt to end the nearly two decades-long war in Afghanistan. The war that began following the 9/11 attacks of 2001, has resulted in nearly 2400 American deaths and is estimated to cost $1 trillion.
“We owe a debt of gratitude to America’s sons and daughters who paid the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan, and to the many thousands who served over the past nearly 19 years,” Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The deal, which is formally entitled the “Agreement to Bring Peace to Afghanistan between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban and the United States of America”, was signed in Doha, Qatar by U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad and the current head of the militant Islamic group, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
At a Pentagon briefing on March 2, 2020, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said, “We are watching the Taliban’s actions closely to assess whether they are upholding their commitments […] we’ll take this one day at a time.”
Conditions of the agreement
The agreement contains several conditions for both sides and would ultimately culminate in the full withdrawal of all U.S. and coalition military forces within 14 months of signing. This is contingent upon the Taliban not attacking U.S. or coalition forces and reducing the magnitude of violence in the region while not allowing any terror group such as al-Qaida or the Islamic State to operate in the region.
In the first 135 days the U.S. will reduce to 8,600 troops, with allies and Coalition forces reducing proportionally.
If the Taliban maintains their terms of the agreement, the U.S., its allies, and the Coalition will completely withdraw all remaining forces within the remaining 9.5 months.
The US will also lift sanctions against the Taliban and work with the UN to lift its separate sanctions against the group.
Where does the Afghanistan government fit in?
Under the agreement, the United States will attempt to facilitate intra-Afghan talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban that will result in the release of approximately 5000 Taliban prisoners and 1000 Afghan prisoners.
However, the national government of Afghanistan did not take part in the agreement as the Taliban does not recognize the government as legitimate, referring to it as “a US-imposed puppet regime”.
Conflicts and Complications
On March 3, 2020, just days after signing the deal, the Taliban conducted 43 attacks on Afghan security forces’ checkpoints across the Helmand province. On March 4, Colonel Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for the US Forces in Afghanistan stated in a tweet the U.S. carried out a “defensive airstrike” to disrupt an ongoing attack on Afghan security forces. Further, he stated, “To be clear- we are committed to peace, however, we have the responsibility to defend our #ANDSF partners.”
To complicate matters even further, on March 14, the Afghan government postponed the release of 1500 Taliban prisoners. Jawid Faisal, a spokesman for the Afghan National Security Advisors office cited that more time was needed to review the list of prisoners. This comes following Afghan President Ashraf Ghani stating earlier in the week the releases would take place March 14 as a “gesture of goodwill” to commence intra-Afghan talks. Faisal stated “”We are ready to start the process the way it is described in the presidential decree but we won’t release anyone if there is no guarantee that they will not return to fighting.”
As of March 14, 7:00 EST, the Taliban has yet to release a statement regarding the delay. However they did release a statement via their official website regarding ISIS, consistent with the conditions of the Feb 29th agreement— “The Islamic Emirate [Taliban] will never give Daesh [ISIS] the opportunity to turn Afghanistan into the center of mischief” and they also called upon their supporters to “stand shoulder to shoulder” against ISIS’ activities within the country. Interestingly, the Taliban refers to ISIS, which itself is an abbreviation for “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria”, as Daesh, which is widely regarded as a derogatory term, similar to “bigot”. ISIS has reportedly threatened to cut out the tongues of anyone it hears using the term.
