Monday, February 17, 2020

Afghan President Ghani: Expect A US-Taliban Deal In The Coming Days

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani meets with U.S. special representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad in Kabul, Afghanistan September 2, 2019. Afghan Presidential Palace/Handout via REUTERS

DW: Afghan President Ghani: US-Taliban deal to come within days

At the Munich Security Conference, the Afghan leader refused to confirm the US-Taliban deal but said a proper announcement will be made in a week to ten days. He also said the US and Afghanistan are now on the same page.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told a panel at the Munich Security Conference that his government is taking a practical approach to resolving the 18-year-long Afghan conflict.

"We are not going to solve this conflict on the basis of 'paper discussions,'" the Afghan leader added.

Ghani expressed some doubts about the Taliban's intention, alluding to the "Trojan Horse strategy," but said that he needed to test the group's commitment nonetheless. "We are going to take a substantial step forward and test. Testing is going to reveal [if the peace with the Taliban works]."

The US-Taliban deal seems closer than ever after the Islamist group agreed to a seven-day reduction of violence in Afghanistan.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said a peace agreement was "very close."

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WNU Editor: Afghan President Ghani is clearly not optimistic that this is going to last.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand why Afghan President Ghani is not optimistic that this is going to last. Within 1 month of the US pullout, the Taliban will be on the attack and will likely take over Afghanistan within a year. The current rulers of Afghanistan are corrupt child molesters and can not survive against a determined opponent.

Bob Huntley said...

The term US-Taliban is interesting.