The Taliban forced the Afghan government to release prisoners with violence

“The peace agreement signed between the United States and the Afghan Taliban encountered hard bones.” According to a Reuters report on the 3rd, the Taliban announced on the 2nd that it will stop implementing the “reduction of violence” agreement and resume armed attacks against Afghan security forces. At the same time, the Taliban will not participate in peace talks in Afghanistan until the Afghan government releases 5,000 Taliban prisoners. As Afghanistan ’s President Ghani has previously publicly refused to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners, the Taliban ’s softened peace talks appear to have taken a “big turn”.

Brief peace is broken again

In the evening of the 2nd local time, the brief calm in Afghanistan was again broken by violence and terror. According to the Afghanistan Kama News Agency, a bomb attack on a football stadium in Horst Province in eastern Afghanistan that day killed at least 3 civilians and injured 11 others. In addition, Taliban militants have abducted 50 local residents in Wardak province in the central part of the country, and the local government says the Taliban plan to use these hostages in exchange for members of the organization detained by the Afghan government.

According to Afghanistan Dawn News Network, Ghana held a press conference on the 1st to criticize the U.S.-Taliban peace agreement, saying that it cannot accept the prerequisites set by the Taliban for the opening of internal peace talks, and emphasized that “the secretly signed agreement will meet some when it is implemented fundamental issue”. Ghani said that the release of prisoners could not be a prerequisite for starting the negotiations, it could only be part of the negotiations, and “the release of prisoners was not the power of the United States, but the power of the Afghan government”.

Analysts say power sharing is now a common issue that Kabul and the Taliban must face next time, whether they want it or not. Ghani’s statement not only expressed Kabul’s dissatisfaction and anxiety about being long excluded from the U.S.-Pakistan peace talks, but also reflected the extreme lack of mutual trust between Kabul and the Taliban. The Afghanistan Times commented that looking at the controversy over Afghanistan’s elections and fragile peace talks, the current political turmoil is likely to push Afghanistan into another destructive civil war.

“Washington is responsible for the dispute”

According to Reuters, Washington may be responsible for the current dispute between the Taliban and the Afghan government over the release of prisoners. The report quoted sources as saying that the U.S. used different wording in two documents reached with the Taliban and the Afghan government separately. The U.S.-Taliban peace agreement states that the Afghan government will release 5,000 Taliban prisoners by March 10. The statement jointly issued with the Afghan government only promised that Kabul would need to participate in the discussion of the “possibility” of releasing prisoners.

Sources said the difference was not only a “potentially significant obstacle” to the next peace talks, but would also hinder the US’s expected withdrawal. The source said, “Someone must make a compromise. The key is whether they reach a compromise themselves or whether the U.S. government plays some heavy role.” National Public Radio reported that despite news that the Taliban is ending Implementation of the “reduction of violence” agreement to resume operations in Afghanistan, but US Secretary of Defense Esper insisted on the 2nd that the United States will launch a troop withdrawal plan in the next few days in accordance with the requirements of the US-Tower Agreement.

According to the U.S.-Taliban peace agreement, the United States will reduce the size of U.S. troops in Afghanistan from 13,000 to 8,600 in 135 days, and the remaining foreign garrisons are expected to withdraw within 14 months. And its allies. The BBC reports that if the U.S. military can complete its withdrawal as planned, the most protracted war since the 21st century may end there.

The real peace talks have not yet begun

However, analysts say that it is too early to talk about a complete withdrawal, and that the Afghan peace process has just reached its core and most difficult stage-peace talks in Afghanistan. The most interesting aspect of the US-Taliban peace agreement is that the Taliban is expected to begin internal peace talks with Afghan parties on March 10 to discuss the issue of a permanent ceasefire and Afghanistan’s future political roadmap.

“The positive significance of the US-Thailand peace agreement cannot cover up some of these shortcomings, such as the lack of direct involvement of the Afghan government,” said Billal Shawkat, a researcher at the Institute for Peace and Conflict at the University of Peshawar, Pakistan, in an interview with a Global Times reporter. It now appears that this is the biggest obstacle to the smooth development of peace talks in Afghanistan. “Shaukat said,” The real peace talks have not yet begun. The road to peace in Afghanistan is still rugged and requires the active participation of the Afghan government, the Taliban and other Afghan political forces. And compromise. “