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Op-Ed: US and Taliban spar over carrying out Afghan peace agreement

Problems

The original deal envisioned a prisoner swap involved 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for 1,000 Afghans held by the Taliban. However, the Afghan government was not part of the deal and refused to carry out the swap that was to be a confidence builder for talks between the Afghan government and Taliban. As a result the Taliban began attacking the Afghan government again. This brought the US back into the fray to protect the Afghan government and US complaints that the Taliban was not keeping its end of the bargain to reduce violence.

Sonny Leggett, spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan tweeted that the Taliban attacks would generate US attacks in response: “Attacks generate attacks, while restraint produces restraint. If the violence cannot be reduced – then yes, there will be responses.”

The US is threatening a further response to the Taliban attacks and the Taliban has warned that the US is making pointless and provocative statements when they should be honoring their own obligations under the prisoner swap deal. The Taliban say they have seen no indication that the US is pushing the Afghan government to follow through on the prisoner releases that were part of the US Taliban agreement.

The situation is complicated in that the Afghan political situation complicated with the presidency of Afran Ghani being challenged by Abdullah Abdullah. Pompeo tried to have them come to an agreement but failed. To punish them the US has withdrawn one billion in aid. There are ongoing negotiations between the two sides and there are reports that progress is being made.

Afghan government releasing some prisoners

The Afghan government has released a number of prisoners, 102 more just recently. Javid Faisal National Security Council spokesperson tweeted on Tuesday: “Pursuant to President Ashraf Ghani’s decree, the government released 102 Taliban yesterday. Over 850 has been released, getting us more than halfway to 1,500. More can be released upon the start of talks,” Faisal also explained that prisoners were being released based on their age, health, and length of remaining sentence and as part of Afghan efforts to battling the COVID-19 pandemic and to gain peace.

The Taliban wanted all the prisoners released in one fell swoop. It remains to be seen if the Taliban regard the Afghan government moves as sufficient to stop attacks and continue talks. The US has already begun withdrawing some troops in accordance with the agreement with the Taliban.

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