While US officials spent much of last week insisting that they are not seeking a “withdrawal agreement” in Afghanistan, a new round of talks is set to star with the Taliban in Doha, and those talks are explicitly centered around firming up the exact date for US and other foreign forces to be out of the country.
This has been what several rounds of Doha talks have been leading up to,
a peace deal in Afghanistan which will start with an agreement for the
US to leave, and the Taliban to keep foreign terror groups out of
Afghanistan. This has been known for months, which makes it puzzling how
US officials are trying to downplay the pullout aspect.
Pentagon officials insist nothing is final in Afghanistan until
everything is final, but all indications are that this is the direction
that the agreement has been shaping up for a long time.
Taliban officials emphasized the importance of getting those first two
aspects of the deal signed off on, saying that once those are in
process, then work on a ceasefire and talks with the Afghan government
could also progress.
US officials have at times suggested all the deals need to be made at
once, but getting the Afghan government into talks has been tricky, and
that’s probably going to take longer than anything else, with many
Afghan leaders reluctant to start negotiating with the Taliban.
If anything, putting a date on the US pullout would definitely bolster
progress on the other details. Afghan officials would have a lot more
reason to make a deal quickly, before the US leaves.
One thing thing that i think could potentially hold up the exit is the ‘threat’ of ISIS-K, in which the US could just claim as another reason to stay. Only time will tell, we have only waited 18 years, what is another few more smh
Because a unified Afghanistan is a chimera making the Taliban the police, national guard, and national army all rolled into one is the only possible way to get out.
Getting out of Afghanistan has been triggered among others by President Trump’s tax cut which did not produce enough revenues with tariffs and arms sales to keep his 4-year deficit increase from possibly setting an all-time record. Reducing the cost of maintaining the armed forces there requires supplies either through Pakistan or by air both of which are expensive.
May Yemen follow Afghanistan. May Iraq follow Yemen. May Syria follow Iraq. May all forces in Africa follow Syria.