Taliban officials have issued an English-language statement this weekend
related to the ongoing Doha talks with a US delegation. They report
that they and the US are getting closer on a timetable for the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan.
During this most recent round of talks, they reported that the US and
Taliban delegations both offered new proposals for a drawdown of troops,
and that the differences at this point simply center on how quickly
this will happen.
US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad didn’t elaborate on the talks themselves, but simply continued to back Afghan government calls for “all sides” to disarm quickly to end the war. All sides likely doesn’t mean the US.
The US and Taliban have been having successful talks for months, but the
attempt to get the Afghan government into the process have faltered,
with the one arranged meeting indefinitely on hold after the Afghan
delegation didn’t show up.
The Afghan govt isn’t relevant, this is between the US and Taliban at most, us and ourselves at the simplest. We don’t need timetables or negotiations to get out of this pointless war, we should just get out because being there is accomplishing nothing constructive.
Not in the longest time have I ever associated the US with peace negotiations.