{"id":84607,"date":"2019-01-28T13:00:33","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T17:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=84607"},"modified":"2019-01-27T19:57:18","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T23:57:18","slug":"us-peace-envoy-claims-progress-regarding-talks-with-taliban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=84607","title":{"rendered":"US Peace Envoy Claims Progress Regarding Talks with Taliban"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Zalmay Khalilzad states that significant progress has been made with Taliban talks.(AP Photo\/Rafiq Maqbool, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The U.S. Peace envoy declares that a lot of progress has been made in negotiations with the Taliban. The hope is to, “End the destructive war in Afghanistan”. One has to ask, “By which standards?”<\/p>\n

The Taliban doesn’t want to include the Afghanistan government in these talks. They want a withdrawal of US and NATO forces. They insist that no substantive progress can be made in the talks without puling the troops out.<\/p>\n

It appears that the Taliban are dictating terms, and not offering something substantive that they would live up to their end of the bargain.<\/p>\n

From Associated Press:<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn’t clear whether Khalilzad is seeking written guarantees from the Taliban that they will distance themselves from al-Qaida operatives, including Ayman al Zawahiri, who live among them or at the very least have safe passage and havens within territory they control.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s similar to what happened towards the end of the Vietnam War. The removal of U.S. troops in 1973 contributed to making it harder for us to guarantee that the North would live up to its end of the peace accords. Removal of U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan removes one solid way we could pressure the Taliban to live up to their end of the “understanding”:<\/p>\n

More from Associated Press:<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn’t clear how the U.S. could verify Taliban promises to ensure Afghan territory is not again a staging arena for attacks outside its borders.<\/p>\n

There was also no indication that the Taliban would agree to a cease-fire, which Khalilzad has been seeking, or when the Taliban would hold direct talks with the Afghan government, something they have continued to reject.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A couple of the graduates from Guantanamo Bay were among the leadership that served as Taliban negotiators. They were two of the five GITMO graduates traded to the Taliban in exchange for Bowe Bergdal.<\/p>\n

The Taliban negotiating team that met this week in Qatar with Khalilzad were all senior members of the movement. They included…Muhammad Fazl and Khairullah Khairkhwah.<\/p>\n

Both Fazl and Khairkhwah were among five Taliban freed from the U.S. prison at Gunatanamo Bay in 2014 in exchange for U.S. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl who had been captured by the Taliban in 2009 after he wandered off his base.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The entire Associated Press article on this topic can be read here<\/a>:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Peace envoy declares that a lot of progress has been made in negotiations with … US Peace Envoy Claims Progress Regarding Talks with Taliban<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[301],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}