Loading ...I’m sure most of you guys saw the pictures of the Taliban and Afghan gov troops chatting and laughing during the Eid al-Fitr religious holiday. Taliban soldiers wandered freely about the cities. I would guess that the Taliban leaders who are entitled to some measure of power if a peace agreement is signed would like to have better lives, not constantly being under threat from the sky. That must be getting tiresome after so many years. Let Peace break out!
Also concerning the arrival of Al-Qaeda and ISIS in Afghanistan it makes sense for the Taliban to negotiate now in order to control the situation as regards to the foreign groups.
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KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Prospects have risen for negotiations between the Taliban and the United States after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani called a ceasefire and allowed militants to roam into cities in a gamble to encourage peace talks.
The Taliban, ousted from power in 2001 by U.S.-led troops, insist that any negotiations with what it calls the “puppet” Afghan government on a peace plan can begin only after talks with the United States about withdrawing foreign forces.
Analysts and Western diplomats said Ghani’s offer to hold unconditional peace talks had set the stage for U.S. officials to open backchannel negotiations with the Taliban, despite Washington’s policy that peace talks be Afghan-led.
“Ghani has done his bit,” said Thomas Ruttig, co-director of Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent think tank.