The Pentagon accused the Afghan Taliban for not meeting the promises, they made in the peace agreement with the United States, including reducing violence and cutting ties with Al-Qaeda. Pentagon Spokesperson John Kirby said that, “We are still involved in trying to get a negotiated settlement. The Taliban have not met their commitments,” According to him the new administration of President Joe Biden remains committed to the February 2020 peace agreement set in Qatar between the United States and Afghan Taliban. Kirby said that there is “no change” to the US commitments made in the peace deal. However, the Taliban are not meeting their commitments to reduce violence, and to renounce their ties to Al-Qaeda.
Since Mid-2018 to date, Afghan peace process have seen many ups and downs in its journey starting through the unnoticed visits of US officials to Doha and Islamabad to the ongoing second phase of Intra-Afghan negotiations. The parties involved had walked through the significant stages of this difficult and thorny track. Presently, the first openers of the Afghan peace process are seemed to be drifting away from their words. It may be a success of the war mongers or a failure of the peace lovers.
As a matter of fact, there was a sharp surge in violence in Afghanistan and the enemies of the peace deliberately hit the capital of the country to create more impact of their nefarious actions and to achieve immediate results. Taliban had refused to take the responsibility for the terrorists’ attacks, however, United States and Afghan government blamed Taliban for these terrorist activities happened during last few weeks.
The doubts for continuation of Afghan peace process started just after declaration of the US Presidential election, were deepen by the announcement of review of US-Taliban Doha agreement by the Biden administration. There was no official response from the Taliban side over the review of deal by the new administration, however, after few days of US announcement, a senior Taliban political negotiators, met Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov and other foreign ministry officials during a visit to Moscow few days back. The visit is a clear signal to the US administration that Taliban will not bow down to any coercive move in respect of US-Taliban Doha agreement and any American’s step in this direction can likely push the Taliban more closer to anti-American camp (Russia).
The US side presented similar reciprocated move by accusing the Taliban for not honoring the Doha agreement and fulfilling their promises regarding reduction in violence and abandonment of ties with Al-Qaeda elements. It is also an effort by the United States to make ground for a forthcoming US move on US-Taliban Doha agreement. On other hand, Intra-Afghan dialogues are also facing stalemate at time, both parties had stuck into critical issues regarding future political system of the country, cease fire, women rights, and structure of the government etc. Some segments of Afghan society desire that United States should continue its presence in Afghanistan so the Country business flourishes on the US dollars and they can prosperous on war economy.
The present international scenario is totally different to the post 9/11 geopolitical landscape of the World. United States is not ready to pour more resources in Afghanistan. The next theatre of international politics will be Indo-pacific region. The new international great game has started in Taiwan and Hong Kong. United States is likely to wrap up its operations in Afghanistan and likely to direct all its resources toward Indo-Pacific region for future great game. Therefore, all Afghan parties should demonstrate passion and tolerance to reach a mutually agreed framework to achieve peace and stability in the country.
