After seven months of talks with the Taliban, President Trump’s administration signed an agreement with the group on January 29, 2020. The Trump administration, which later failed in its management of the coronavirus crisis, wanted to use the result of the intra-Afghan talks in its presidential election campaign. For this reason, by signing the Doha Agreement, they made peace with the group the US had been fighting for two decades. And so, in order to ensure the Doha Agreement was upheld, Trump put pressure on the Afghan government in order to secure the release of the 5,000 Taliban prisoners mentioned in it. The Afghan government was upset by the talks, which took place without its involvement. The harsh conditions of the peace agreement, which was finalized in the government’s absence, put twice the burden on the Afghan government.
The pressure from the Americans was heavy on the government, but in the end, it agreed to the demands, and with the approval of the Consultative Loya Jirga, the process to release the Taliban prisoners began and was completed. The Trump administration had promised to reduce the presence of American troops in Afghanistan to zero. He wanted to end the complex war in Afghanistan before the elections, and portray himself to the American people and the world as a hero of peace in Afghanistan and the person responsible for bringing the brave American soldiers back to the US. Despite all these, the American people voted for Joe Biden in the November 3 election, and ousted Trump from the White House. Trump, building on the emergence of a wave of populism and fear of the ‘other’, had deceived the American people in the worst way, but it was not long before the American people clearly saw the dangers of putting a poorly literate person in the White House.
The signing of a peace agreement with the Taliban was one among hallmark decisions such as the withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, and the start of negotiations with the North Korean leader. This was an agreement that most American generals did not agree with. Zalmai Khalilzad, the State Department’s representative in the Afghan peace process, made extensive efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan, but ultimately, these efforts resulted in a peace agreement whose provisions were completely violated. The Taliban, in defiance of the Doha Agreement on the Elimination of Violence, escalated violence. Prior to the peace talks, there was armed conflict in ten provinces of Afghanistan, but now it is taking place in 20 to 29 provinces of Afghanistan.
As the election date approached, the Trump administration chose to keep up its pressure at the level of dissatisfied tweets by Zalmai Khalilzad. With the signing of the Doha Peace Agreement, the Taliban entered a new political situation. Countries across the region have reopened their own channels with the group, and in practice, this action by the Trump administration ended up isolating the government of Afghanistan. The Intra-Afghan peace talks continue in the wake of the Doha Agreement and Kabul-Washington joint declarations, but these talks have not seen any progress. With the recent escalation of violence in Kabul, the government’s negotiating team formally objected to meeting with members of the Taliban.
Now that Biden has won the US election, it is necessary to turn to a new page for peace in Afghanistan. There is no doubt that peace talks must continue, as the people of Afghanistan want peace. In a time when the people are fed up of war, the need for peace is felt more than ever, but this peace must be brought about on the basis of the will of the people of Afghanistan and under conditions acceptable to the people and the world. Peace and war, when they coexist, cannot be acceptable to the people. Peace would be meaningful for the people of Afghanistan only when they could feel the Taliban’s intentions towards this end in their tangible and practical actions. These must include accepting a ceasefire until the intra-Afghan negotiations are finalized. War can no longer be used as a bargaining chip at the negotiating table. The Biden administration must place heavy conditions on the Taliban, just as heavy conditions were previously placed on the Afghan government. The Taliban must obey the will of the Afghan people and accept a ceasefire, and the new US administration must make the will of the people of Afghanistan the basis of their interactions with the Taliban.
The Taliban’s intention to make peace can only be understood by the fact that they must end the current bloody war and accept a ceasefire until the end of negotiations. The policy of the new US administration in relation to making peace with the Taliban must be based on the demands and will of the absolute majority of the Afghan people.
