Hostilities between American soldiers and the Taliban were to begin to decrease on Saturday, a prelude to a historic agreement opening a double path hoped for 18 years: peace in Afghanistan and a withdrawal of the United States from this country bled by violence. The gradual truce is supposed to apply since Saturday midnight (Friday at 8:30 p.m. in France). The agreement should be initialed to him on February 29, on the condition that a drop in attacks be noted throughout the Afghan territory, a prerequisite demanded by Washington.
"Once (the reduction of violence) has been successfully implemented, the signing of the agreement between the United States and the Taliban should go forward," American Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo told About this promise from Donald Trump, who pledged in his 2016 presidential campaign to withdraw the U.S. military from this deadly and unpopular theater of operations.
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The agreement will condition this partial withdrawal of American troops to security guarantees from the Taliban. The American objective is in particular to avoid that Afghanistan becomes again a den of jihadists, two decades after Osama bin Laden had planned the attacks of September 11, 2001 committed in the United States there.
Pentagon chief Mark Esper warned in a tweet that if the Taliban does not demonstrate "its commitment to a real reduction in violence" , the United States "remains ready to defend itself and its Afghan partners . " " We are preparing for the signing to take place on February 29," said Pompeo in a statement released after his visit to Saudi Arabia. The Afghan conflict is the longest in the history of the United States.
"After long negotiations, (the two parties) agreed to sign the finalized agreement in the presence of international observers (...) on February 29," the Taliban confirmed in a statement. Both the United States and the insurgents will now "create an adequate security situation" before this date, they continued. "The Afghan security forces will remain in active defense for the week," warned Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in a televised speech. "The next steps in the peace process will depend on the assessment of the reduction in violence this week," added Ashraf Ghani, re-elected this week for a second term.
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Moscow immediately hailed "an important event" for peace, NATO for its part welcoming an agreement paving the way for "lasting peace" . However, there seems to be a disagreement between the belligerents. Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen tweeted that the deal would see "all" foreign forces leaving Afghanistan. Some 12 to 13,000 American soldiers are based in Afghanistan, the country where the United States is waging the longest war in its history. Other countries, notably European, are also involved in the field.
The Taliban were driven from power in Afghanistan by an international coalition led by the United States after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The insurgents, who have ruled in Kabul since 1996, then led a relentless guerrilla war, which killed more than 2,400 American soldiers and tens of thousands of members of the Afghan security forces. Washington has spent more than $ 1 trillion on the war, which has also left over 10,000 civilians dead since 2009, according to the UN.
"We have received orders from our leaders asking us to be ready for the reduction in violence which will start on Saturday," a Taliban from the Maiwand district in southern Kandahar province told AFP. Another Taliban commander based in Kandahar, Hafiz Saeed Hedayat, however told AFP that the reduction in fighting would only apply "to cities and main roads" . "This means that perhaps the violence will continue in rural districts" .
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Once this agreement is signed, inter-Afghan talks must open, while the Taliban have refused for 18 years to negotiate with the government of Kabul, which they consider a "puppet" of Washington. Taliban sources in Pakistan say the talks are scheduled to start "March 10" . Insurgent number 2 Sirajuddin Haqqani said on Thursday that the rebels "fully committed to working with the other parties" in "sincere respect in order to agree on a new inclusive political system" .
Taliban expert Rahimullah Yusufzai said "the two sides have shown their willingness to sign a peace agreement, which is a significant development . " But the next phase will be more problematic, because "the Taliban are still not ready to discuss directly with the Afghan government" , in which also act "troublemakers" , "opposed to this process," he said. valued.
If the peace process is successful, Donald Trump will surely make it an electoral argument. "The credit is due to the president" of an agreement, said a senior official in the American administration recently. On September 7, 2019, Trump had created astonishment by breaking off the direct and unprecedented negotiations carried out for a year with the Taliban, who seemed on the verge of reaching an agreement, by invoking the death of an American soldier in yet another attack. insurgents in Kabul.
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