(The Kabul Times): U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Saturday that consultations were still underway on setting a start date for a seven-day trial of reduced violence negotiated with the Taliban in Afghanistan. \u201cThat is a moving date because we are still doing consultations, if you will, \u2026 so I can\u2019t give you a hard date right now,\u201d Esper told reporters in Munich, Germany, after attending a security conference there.\u00a0 U.S. officials have said a successful implementation of the temporary reduction in violence would pave the way for a comprehensive peace deal with the insurgent group that could end America\u2019s longest war and bring home about 13,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan. \u201cWhere we are right now is on the doorstep of a reduction-of-violence period. If we decide to move forward, if all sides hold up \u2014 meet their obligations under that reduction in violence \u2014 then we\u2019ll start talking about the next part, whether to move forward [with the comprehensive peace agreement],\u201d Esper said.\u00a0 As part of the short-term agreement, he added, the United States will suspend \u201ca significant part of our operations,\u201d though the Pentagon chief declined to discuss details.\u00a0 U.S. officials say the deal binds the Taliban to halt major attacks, including roadside and suicide bombings, against Afghan and U.S.-led international forces anywhere in the country.\u00a0 Some risk, but \u2018promising\u2019 Earlier, Esper told an audience at the Munich Security Conference the reduction in violence was not without risk but looked \u201dvery promising\u201d and \u201cwe have to give peace a chance.\u201d\u00a0 He went on to reiterate that \u201cthe best if not the only way forward in Afghanistan is through a political agreement, and that means taking some risk.\u201d\u00a0 Taliban sources have said the seven-day period will begin February 22 and the comprehensive peace agreement is expected to be signed on February 29.\u00a0 U.S. and Taliban representatives have negotiated the draft peace agreement during months of meetings in the Gulf state of Qatar. If signed, it immediately could lead to a gradual withdrawal of American forces, bringing the force down to 8,600 personnel in the initial few months. Taliban sources say the agreement will require all foreign troops to leave Afghanistan within two years.\u00a0 Insurgent sources say international guarantors such as the United Nations, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Germany, Norway and Qatar will witness the signing ceremony.\u00a0 The agreement will require the Taliban to open negotiations within 10 days with an inclusive Afghan delegation that represents all political and ethnic groups in the country, including the government in Kabul.\u00a0 That intra-Afghan dialogue will discuss a permanent nationwide cease-fire and power-sharing in postwar Afghanistan. Germany and Norway have both offered to host Taliban-Afghan negotiations, but no final decision has been made.\u00a0 U.S. officials have stressed the troop drawdown plans, however, will be linked to progress in intra-Afghan negotiations and effective implementation of Taliban undertakings, including a further reduction in insurgent violence.\u00a0 President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani also spoke Saturday at the Munich conference and reiterated his skepticism about the U.S.-led peace process.\u00a0 \u201cThe concern that the Taliban could be using a peace process as a \u2018Trojan horse strategy\u2019 is there, but you can\u2019t end this war without engaging in a process and testing them.\u201d Between the signing of the U.S.-Taliban deal and the start of intra-Afghan negotiations, the insurgent group and Afghan authorities would be expected to release prisoners. Taliban officials say they already have given their list of thousands of insurgents being held in Afghan prisons.\u00a0 The troop drawdown agreement was expected to be signed last\u00a0September but\u00a0continued deadly Taliban attacks on Afghan and U.S. troops prompted President Donald Trump to halt the peace process. The negotiations resumed in December and marked progress has been\u00a0achieved since then<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(The Kabul Times): U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Saturday that consultations were still underway on setting a start date for a seven-day trial of reduced violence negotiated with the Taliban in Afghanistan. \u201cThat is a moving date because we are still doing consultations, if you will, \u2026 so I can\u2019t give you a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archived-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2780,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2779\/revisions\/2780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}