The Taliban Calls Trump’s Withdrawal From Afghanistan A Positive Step

The Taliban have called President Donald Trump’s announcement to bring most US troops back from Afghanistan before Christmas “a positive step.” Trump also tweeted that he wants all US troops out of the country by the end of the year.

 

The United States had agreed with the Taliban in talks in Qatar in February to phase out the fight to negotiate a ceasefire and peace negotiations between the Afghan parties.

The Taliban have virtually halted their attacks on foreign military, but continue to fight Afghan forces. The government in Kabul was initially unhappy with the talks of Washington and the Taliban, but peace talks started last month.

Afghan army chief Mohammed Jasin Sia said in a response on Thursday that his country’s armed forces can repel attacks from the Taliban everywhere.

Trump already agitated in the election campaign in 2016 against his country’s expensive foreign military adventures and now hopes to end the intervention in Afghanistan with the forthcoming presidential election. With almost 20 years of fighting, it is now the longest war the US has ever fought.

However, there is still no ceasefire, and many Afghans do not trust the Taliban as their interlocutor. The Taliban exercised a reign of terror in the years 1996-2001 and want to turn the country into a strict Islamic state.

They are extremist Sunnis, mainly of the Pashtun population group (Pashtun) from the east and south. This is the largest population group, but not the majority in the country. He fears a new reign of terror.