Taliban Present Afghan Ceasefire Offer to US

Afghan Govt spurns Taliban's offer of reduction of violence

The Taliban has announced that they have given the US envoy their formal offer for a temporary ceasefire, meant to last 7-10 days and open the window for announcing a peace deal to end 18+ years of war in Afghanistan.

A peace deal for Afghanistan has been all but finalized since October, though the US withdrew from the talks for a couple of months before returning, and then paused talks one other time to protest the Taliban. A ceasefire is expected to be part of the deal.

Another part of the deal is supposed to be talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government, though the Afghan government has rejected a Taliban offer for a mutual reduction of violence meant to facilitate such talks.

Afghan officials said any temporary reductions were wholly unacceptable, and that they insist on an unconditional, nationwide ceasefire before they’ll even consider holding peace talks.

Author: Jason Ditz

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.