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US to withdraw 5,000 troops from Afghanistan and close five bases under peace agreement with the Taliban, top U.S. negotiator says
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2019-09-03 at 7:46 PM UTChttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7419147/U-S-special-envoy-shows-draft-deal-Taliban-Afghan-president.html
The United States would withdraw almost 5,000 troops from Afghanistan and close five bases within 135 days under a draft peace accord agreed with the Taliban, according to a U.S. envoy.
The deal, reached after months of negotiations with representatives from the insurgent movement, must still be approved by U.S. President Donald Trump before it can be signed, the chief U.S. negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, said on Monday.
'In principle, we have got there. The document is closed,' he said in an interview with Afghanistan's Tolo News television.
In exchange for the phased withdrawal, the Taliban would commit not to allow Afghanistan to be used by militant groups such as al Qaeda or Islamic State as a base for attacks on the United States and its allies.
The distance that must still be covered before peace is achieved was underlined, however, by a large explosion that rocked the Afghan capital, Kabul, even as Khalilzad's interview was being aired, shaking buildings several kilometers away.
Khalilzad, a veteran Afghan-American diplomat, said the aim of the deal was to end the war and that it would lead to a reduction in violence, but there was no formal ceasefire agreement. He said it would be up to negotiations among Afghans themselves to agree a settlement.
He declined to say how long the rest of the roughly 14,000 U.S. troops would remain in Afghanistan after the first stage of the withdrawal, although Taliban officials previously insisted that all foreign forces must leave.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has been briefed on a draft of the accord and will look at details of the deal before giving an opinion, his spokesman said on Monday.
Khalilzad said 'intra-Afghan' talks, which might be held in Norway, would aim to reach a broader political settlement and end the fighting between the Taliban and the Western-backed government in Kabul.
Details of any future negotiations remain unclear, with the Taliban so far refusing to deal directly with the government, which it considers an illegitimate 'puppet' regime
It's nice to see the US government back-peddle. I joked about joining the taliban once, and some cops came to ask me questions about it.
What ever happened to "We don't negotiate with terrorists"? I guess these pathetic scumbags will no longer consider the Taliban to be a terrorist organization. That's what happens when you legitimize. The US government can label just about anyone a terrorist until they have enough support and start to be seen as a legitimate government.
Everyone knows the US government is a terrorist organization anyway. -
2019-09-04 at 2:22 PM UTC"In exchange for the phased withdrawal, the Taliban would commit not to allow Afghanistan to be used by militant groups such as al Qaeda or Islamic State as a base for attacks on the United States and its allies."
Sure thing. Luulz! -
2019-09-04 at 2:43 PM UTC
Originally posted by Red_Woman "In exchange for the phased withdrawal, the Taliban would commit not to allow Afghanistan to be used by militant groups such as al Qaeda or Islamic State as a base for attacks on the United States and its allies."
Sure thing. Luulz!
The Taliban actually has been fighting with al Qaeda lately, not sure about ISIS. -
2019-09-04 at 3:26 PM UTC
Originally posted by park police The Taliban actually has been fighting with al Qaeda lately, not sure about ISIS.
I don't think ISIS is there - although they do have connections - because ISIS is their mutual rival and both Al Qaeda and Taliban share antipathy towards them.
The point is that they Al Qaeda and the Taliban are allies. This does not mean that they have merged or always adhere to one another’s input and objectives. It has always been a long-standing but difficult partnership. They have areas of major divergence.
Since the beginning the two groups have differed on their strategic objectives. The Taliban continues to be very committed and focused on Afghanistan, and has never embraced al-Qaeda’s global jihadist ambitions. However, they cooperate in Afghanistan and expect future cooperation, because they share a desire to expel U.S. forces from Afghanistan and re-instate Taliban rule. That objective is never going to change. It is true that the Taliban does not rely on Al Qaeda the way it used to, but they do maintain a foothold there. This arrangement works fine for Al Qaeda because the insurgency in Afghanistan is not its top priority.
Things may change though, al-Zawahiri is not Bin Laden. These things are difficult to predict, only time will tell. But one thing is for sure; their ties run deeper.
Having said that, I've always been of the opinion that US should get the hell out of Afghanistan. They can't keep it, they never have. Afghanistan is a failed corrupt state as it is. And the Taliban’s greatest strength is its ability to capitalize on widespread local grievances and the Afghan government’s lack of legitimacy. -
2019-09-04 at 3:43 PM UTCISIS-Khorosan
There are significant numbers of them clustered around the Afghanistan-Pakistan border; groups were moved there when the SAA and Hezbullah roflstomped them out of Syria, specifically the Deir Eizzor region from memory -
2019-09-04 at 3:52 PM UTCAnd many have joined Al Qaeda, they had to. But what I mean is that there is no established organization with a foothold in Afghanistan, and an alliance with the Taliban, as Al-Qaeda has.
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2019-09-04 at 4:35 PM UTCWonder how long this will last, isn't Iran next on the agenda because of the
United States and (((its allies.)))
There will never be true peace in the middle east, either leave it alone or glass it.
If you glass it well enough it could help cool down the earth by reflecting light and heat, not to mention nuclear winter.The following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire! -
2019-09-09 at 7:19 PM UTC
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2019-09-09 at 7:25 PM UTCI'm just going to leave this here (Airlift of Evil).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunduz_airlift
Al Qaeda and the Taliban glow in the dark something fierce. -
2019-09-09 at 7:28 PM UTCI'm not going to pretend to know what's going on over there, but they may be allied with Jeff Hunter.
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2019-09-09 at 7:54 PM UTCAfghanistan in the 1950s
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2019-09-09 at 7:56 PM UTC
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2019-09-10 at 1:21 AM UTC
Originally posted by Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country I'm just going to leave this here (Airlift of Evil).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunduz_airlift
Al Qaeda and the Taliban glow in the dark something fierce.
Well yeah, the US has a history of creating enemies and foreign boogeymen as an excuse to dick around and steal resources from other countries and rob the american people of more freedoms. -
2019-09-10 at 8:30 AM UTCWhen do we get the sovietafghan war pt2?
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2019-09-10 at 8:52 AM UTCI blame the jedis
