Officials from the Taliban’s leadership council, the Rehbari Shura, say that they intend to review and study all of the language of the draft peace agreement with the United States, and are waiting on that to finalize the pact.
This mirrors the US intention to let Trump make a final decision before
finalization. The Taliban leaders say they don’t expect any major
changes to be sought by the shura, and that the draft deal is more or
less set.
The shura’s leadership say they have been kept appraised of much of the
deal while in contact with the negotiation team in Doha. It does not
appear that they have a final copy of the draft deal in hand yet,
however.
One issue that has changed is that the Taliban sought a nine month US
withdrawal, while the US had sought at least 18 months. The compromise
appears to have landed somewhere in the middle, but with over 5,000 US
troops withdrawing in five months.
Taliban’s Shura Council Will Review US Peace Deal
Council intends to study deal, don't expect major changes
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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