Daily Times

Some senior Afghan officials are beating the drum for a possible ‘review’ of the February last year’s US-Taliban deal to bring lasting peace in war-torn Afghanistan and allow US troops to return home from America’s longest war.

The deal is between the Taliban and the United States of America and not between two individuals and amending the document could be problematic. As the Biden administration has hinted at a review, such a possibility cannot be ruled out.

Former Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said last year that 26 senior American officials from various departments including Pentagon, CIA, FBI, Justice Ministry and State Department, participated in the last session of the negotiations to give a final approval to a draft in August 2019. Trump has gone but all American state institutions exist. Even Zalmay Khalilzad, the architect of the landmark deal, has not been removed.

Taliban have not yet commented on a statement by the American national security adviser Jake Sullivan who hinted at a review during a call to his Afghan counterpart Hamdullah Mohib. But Taliban are expected to reject such a possibility as they had even ruled out more discussions after the draft of the Doha agreement was handed over to Qatari officials in August 2019.

In March 2020, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution, welcoming and endorsing the deal between the US and the Taliban. The Afghan government has also accepted the Doha agreement in the preamble of the 21-point rules and procedures for the intra-Afghan negotiations. Whatever the new American administration decides about the Doha agreement but key Biden’s ministers have made it clear they want to put a pause on the endless wars that also include the war in Afghanistan, the American’s longest.

American officials have also attached hopes to the on-going intra-Afghan negotiations that is a unique chance for the Taliban and the Afghan government to decide a future political roadmap. This will be a little disappointment for the warmongers and those who enjoy privileges in the war at the cost of common Afghans who are now killed in the senseless war. “We want to end this so-called forever war. We want to bring our forces home. We want to retain some capacity to deal with any resurgence of terrorism, which is what brought us there in the first place,” Antony Blinken, Biden’s secretary of state, told his Senate confirmation hearing this week.

This will be a naïve approach of the new American administration and its NATO allies to keep troops in Afghanistan beyond the withdrawal timeframe. Keeping troops means continuation of the war and majority Afghans may not support such a review which can prolong the war.

The Doha agreement has laid out a 14-month period for the withdrawal of “all military forces of the United States, its allies, and Coalition partners, including all non-diplomatic civilian personnel, private security contractors, trainers, advisors, and supporting services personnel.” Although the negotiations in Qatar presently face a stalemate, this is the best option for both sides to push the process forward and show flexibility in their tough positions. The onus is on the Taliban and the government how quickly they agree on a future set up. If they fail to resolve differences, other countries will definitely try to find a space to interfere in intra-Afghan negotiations which should be a complete Afghan affair. They must send a clear message to the US and its western allies that their military presence is no more required.