President Trump’s recent demand that the Taliban unconditionally agree to a “reduction of violence” before Afghan peace talks even formally resume has sparked frustration from the Taliban, which expressed annoyance at additional demands and accused the US of “wasting time.”
Since Trump cancelled the almost finished talks in October, that’s been a problem. Trump initially added the condition of a ceasefire to the peace deal, over warnings from negotiators that this would be a hard sell. They managed to get the Taliban to agree to this, but now Trump has added a reduction of violence before they can even talk about the deal that would end with a ceasefire.
Adding to the difficulties, the Taliban are reporting that their preliminary talks with US negotiator Zelmay Khalilzad have gotten bogged down heavily in trying to work out a definition of what “reduction of violence” would even mean if the Taliban were going to agree to it.
For a deal which could have been made months ago, there is a lot of difficulty in making new advancement. Amnesty International also issued a statement condemning the “absurdity” of the matter, saying that with both sides guilty of so many attacks on civilians, they should stop pretending that there is a “acceptable level of violence” to be reduced to.
“Adding to the difficulties, the Taliban are reporting that their preliminary talks with US negotiator Zelmay Khalilzad have gotten bogged down heavily in trying to work out a definition of what “reduction of violence” would even mean if the Taliban were going to agree to it.”
The “reduction of violence” meaning is fluid. It means that we will change the meaning at our convenience in order to make sure this never ending war never ends.
Standard US “negotiating” procedure: maximize demands, get agreements and/or compromises and then talk about whatever is left on the table.
To the Taliban, may I say the US has used a similar tactic in Syria. Need I say more?
If you want the US to “sincerely bend” or see their cards, take out a two-star or higher anywhere in the world without taking responsibility. As you well know, they need no evidence for retribution.
The US isn’t leaving Syria or Iraq, so why would the Taliban leadership think they can negotiate with Washington for US troops to depart Afghanistan?
Obviously Taliban leaders should be wary of any personal invitations to peace talks in Baghdad.
The USA has been having a real problem facing up to the facts that they no longer rule the World – their dollar and their massive military aren’t worth what they used to be.
“Surrender or die” is already a very difficult position to negotiate, admittedly.
“Surrender AND die”, yes, very frustrating indeed. The Taliban reaped some serious bad karma when they blew up those giant Buddhist statues.
With Iran down their only Soleimani, China out with the flu, and Russia shuffling its deck, max pressure now turns to Afghanistan.