Week-long Taliban truce to be called in hours

A week-long ‘reduction in violence’ between the Taliban, the US, and Afghan security forces will commence on Saturday.

US troops at the site of a Taliban suicide attack near Kandahar in 2017. Picture: AFP

A week-long “reduction in violence” between the Taliban, the US, and Afghan security forces will begin on Saturday, an official said on Friday, ahead of the signing of a possible deal between Washington and the insurgents.

“The reduction in violence will start from 22 February and will last for one week,” said Javed Faisal, Afghanistan’s National Secur­ity Council spokesman.

The Taliban did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and US forces declined to comment. However, in an oped published in The New York Times on Friday the insurgents’ deputy leader said the group would soon sign the agreement with Washington, adding that militant commanders were “fully committed” to observing the “historic” accord.

“That we today stand at the threshold of a peace agreement with the United States is no small milestone,” Sirajuddin Haqqani wrote in the first significant public statement by a Taliban leader on the accord.

Haqqani, who is also head of the Pakistan-linked Haqqani Network, continued: “Achieving the potential of the agreement, ensuring its success and earning lasting peace will depend on an equally scrup­ulous observance by the United States of each of its commitments.”

He also addressed fears about Afghanistan becoming once again a springboard for Islamist milit­ants, calling such concerns ­“inflat­ed”. Writing about how women’s rights in Afghanistan would look if foreign forces left, he envisioned an “Islamic system” in which “the rights of women that are granted by Islam — from the right to education to the right to work — are protected.”

The Taliban banned women from education and work and only let them leave their homes in the company of a male relative. Overnight, women disappeared behind the burqa, their activities restricted to their homes. If the partial truce goes ahead, it would mark a historic step in more than 18 years of gruelling conflict in ­Afghanistan and would pave the way for a deal that could, ultim­ately, see the war end.

The US has for more than a year been in talks with the Taliban for a deal in which it would pull out thousands of troops in return for a set of Taliban security guarantees and commitments.

A reduction in violence would show the Taliban can control its forces and demonstrate good faith ahead of the deal, under which the Pentagon would withdraw about half of the 12,000 to 13,000 troops in Afghanistan.

The US and the Taliban were close to a deal before, only for US President Donald Trump to nix it in September at the 11th hour amid continued insurgent violence.

Afghan officials have said the deal could be signed on February 29 in Doha, assuming the lull in violenc­e proceeded according to plan. But analysts warn the deal is fraught with complications and could fail at any time.

AFP, Reuters