Peace talks between the US and Taliban are going to be taking a little time off for the Eid al-Adha holiday. When they come back after the holiday, the Afghan peace deal is going to be the focus again, and the expectation is it will be finalized.
Hopes for a finalized deal are nothing new, but both sides are now saying they believe that a peace agreement will be reached, and signed, at some point in the this week. This will then lead to work on direct Taliban-Afghan talks on power-sharing.
That’s a key issue. The deal with the US involves removing foreign troops, Taliban keeping foreign Islamists out of Afghanistan, and a ceasefire. The power-sharing deal is the last aspect of peace, and the Taliban had long resisted entering such talks until the US pullout was agreed upon.
That’s likely to lead to further delays in the presidential election, tentatively set for September. The election has been delayed before over peace talks, and with a deal now imminent, a further delay is considered so probable that many candidates aren’t even bothering to start campaigning.
So Trump is going to end the war in Afghanistan and start 2 new wars in Venezuela and Iran.
Trump is not planning to invade Iran or Venezuela, especially in a year before the election. His approach is to please the hawks with belligerent bad mouthing of the target country, plus severe sanctions. His use of military has been restricted to existing countries, instead of new ones.
I hope you are right but this embargo is an outrage. The fight against Reagan and his Central American crimes started out small and grew to a nationwide movement throughout the 1980’s. Message to Trump and his fans. You embargo Venezuela we will embargo your campaign rallies.
I’m not a Trump guy, but I’ll give him credit if he can bring an honorable end to US involvement in Afghanistan. The Trump-Haters of America will find a way to hate him for it, but he will deserve some praise.
Hands off Venezuela red neck Trump supporters.
Tell it, Mauel Thomas. Tell it! Venezuela’s a sovereign nation and blockading it is an act of war and violates International law. Period. Yes, hands off Venezuela.
It’s second nature these days for the opposition to look for the dark lining in any cloud. Hell, Obama negotiated for Iran to agree to inspections to insure they weren’t developing nuclear weapons and Trump declared it to be the ‘worst deal ever’ and broke it, while still demanding Iran live up to its part of the deal.
And now Iran will probably reach nuclear weapons capability much sooner than under the agreement. Trump deserves criticism for that.
That, LouieLouis, Iran WON’T do, simply because the Ayatollahs (deceased and living) issued religious decrees (Fatwas) against the development, production and/or procurement of nuclear weapons. Any nuclear scientists in Iran caught doing so would be executed, Period. All uranium/plutonium were (and are) enriched for peaceful purposes only – being for electricity generation and for isotopes in treating cancer patients.
I’m not a Trump guy, but I’ll give him credit if he can bring an honorable end to US involvement in Afghanistan. The Trump-Haters of America will find a way to hate him for it, but he will deserve some praise.
Get USA & its tag-along NATO “partners” out of Afghanistan.
“Peace talks between the US and Taliban are going to be taking a little time off for the upcoming Eid al-Adha holiday.” Sorry, Jason, Erik Prince and his al-CIAda mercenaries never take a “little time off.” They will continue to terrorize civilians, harass the Taliban, and most of all, keep the drug trade alive and well, despite what agreements are signed.
We will never end this war until we acknowledge that the stated reasons for going into it were phony from the get-go. That nineteen Arabs armed with boxcutters led by Osama bin Laden holed up in a cave… give me an f-ing break. It was always about the opium, the oil pipeline, the lithium…
Peace in Afghanistan will bring Taliban
But this Taliban is more battle hardened and also more diplomacy savvy . Pakistan will redeploy soldiers to eastern front – India .
Taliban freedom fighters will join Kashmiri insurgents .
India is for big trouble down the line .
One good thing that will help Taliban this time is that it has cultivated relations with Uzbek China and Russia . It is not going to be outcast as it was before 2001.
USA had a golden opportunity in 1996-2001 Oct to mold Taliban and to get them serve USA interests .
Now this is not so certain .
Is this the deal that Trump is going to quit in 2020?!
YES! Now put Bolton and friends in a cage please.
That’s like ‘thoughts and prayers.’ Bolton is apparently still very much in charge of certain domains of foreign policy.
There will be many more realignments in the region. US has no allies with obligation to accept US directives, politically, militarily or economically. While Kabul government is certainly dependent on US to keep it in power and protected from Taliban — this “protection” schema cannot last. Taliban is strong in the region, and Kabul government sent its proxies to meetings in Moscow. In fact, if US feels that Kabul government will remain its card, it will not last.
You mean the Deal that will be broken by Trump in 2020?!