Afghanistan: Joe Biden wants to negotiate with the Taliban about the whereabouts of US troops

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US President Joe Biden: The peace talks that have been going on in Doha since September have made little progress so far

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Stefani Reynolds / POOL / EPA

Despite peace talks with the Taliban, Afghanistan cannot calm down.

Now US President Joe Biden wants to speak again about a central point of the peace agreement.

The Doha agreement signed between the United States and the Taliban in February 2020 provides for all foreign troops to withdraw from Afghanistan by May 1.

However, Washington wants to negotiate an extension of the stationing of US troops.

"You can't somehow withdraw more than 10,000 soldiers in six weeks," said Chairman of the US House of Representatives' Armed Forces Committee, Adam Smith, on Wednesday.

The government's job would now be to negotiate with the Taliban about allowing the US-led force to stay "a little longer."

President Biden also hopes, with the approval of the Taliban, to keep a counter-terrorism unit in the country after the US and allied NATO forces have withdrawn, said Smith.

The February 2020 agreement also paved the way for peace negotiations between the Taliban and the government in Kabul.

The talks that have been ongoing in Doha since September have made little progress so far.

Taliban reject new elections

There are also bloody attacks in Afghanistan time and again.

Last year the UN mission (Unama) recorded 3,035 civilians killed and 5,785 wounded in the conflict in Afghanistan.

Most recently, the radical Islamic Taliban rejected a proposal by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's election later this year.

Ghani will explain the proposal at a conference in Turkey in April, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

Soon elections are "a fair plan for the future of Afghanistan."

The Taliban immediately rejected the request.

Taliban spokesman Sabihullah Mujahid told the AFP news agency that elections have "brought the country to the brink of crisis" in the past.

All decisions about the future of Afghanistan would have to be made in the course of the ongoing negotiations between the government and the Islamists.

asc / Reuters / AFP / dpa