Feeling they have the momentum on the battlefield, the Taliban may not yet be ready to talk turkey
AN UNANNOUNCED VISIT at Thanksgiving to the troops in Afghanistan by an American president facing re-election next year is perhaps to be expected. But after doling out turkey and mashed potatoes to homesick soldiers, Donald Trump did pull something of a surprise. He revealed that his administration had resumed talks with the Taliban insurgency.
The president’s decision to kill off a year-long process involving a series of talks with the Taliban in the Qatari capital, Doha, had always looked badly thought through. A draft deal was supposedly on the verge of agreement in September. It was not to his liking, and an ill-timed Taliban attack in which an American soldier was killed prompted his repudiation of it. He had little option, however, than to try again.
Yet it is far from clear that anything significant has changed in the two sides’ positions since September. The draft deal had included a timetable for an American withdrawal, in return for Taliban assurances that international terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda would not be allowed to base themselves on Afghan soil. Talks between the Afghan government and the insurgents would follow. Top of the agenda would be a ceasefire.
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