ISLAMABAD: Chief Taliban negotiator Sher Abbas Stanikzai does not see the attacks on Afghan forces as a threat to the insurgent group’s peace agreement with the United States, though he insists that the Americans have “failed to honor their commitment” regarding the release of nearly 5,000 Taliban prisoners.
Stanikzai, who secured a landmark deal for the Taliban that could lead to the withdrawal of foreign forces and end the longest US war, defended the Taliban attacks on Afghan forces.
The US-led NATO on Friday called on the Taliban to “reduce violence and create conditions conducive to commence negotiations.”
“NATO further calls on the Taliban to fulfill its commitments to ensure that terrorists never again find safe haven on Afghan soil,” the alliance ambassadors in NATO’s North Atlantic Council said in a statement on the peace efforts.
Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan Deborah Lyons also said in a statement on Thursday that she “strongly encourages everyone to get behind the Secretary-General’s urgent call for a global ceasefire to silence the guns and enable all Afghans to come together to fight the pandemic.”
Several Afghan officials have said in reported comments that dozens of security personnel have been killed in the recent Taliban attacks in different parts of the country.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani also appealed to the insurgent group to declare ceasefire during Ramadan on Wednesday. However, the Taliban political spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, rejected the appeal as “illogical” and accused the government of “creating hurdles for the peace process.”
Ramadan began in Afghanistan on Friday. Ghani had also cited the threat of coronavirus pandemic to the war-ravaged country in his statement.
“There is a complete ceasefire of the Islamic Emirate with the US under the agreement with the Americans and, as mentioned in that document, ceasefire with the Kabul administration will be discussed when the intra-Afghan dialogue starts. A separate agreement will be signed with the Kabul administration for a cease-fire,” Stanikzai told Arab News in an exclusive interview on Friday while using the insurgent group’s self-description in his statement.
He sent replies to the questions via WhatsApp in audio messages.
“There is no mention of a ceasefire with the Kabul administration in the agreement. Reduction in violence and ceasefire will be discussed in the intra-Afghan dialogue. These negotiations have not yet started,” the Taliban leader said.
The agreement signed on Feb. 29 for a gradual withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan calls for the release of about 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for 1,000 government security forces being held by the Taliban. The deal required the prisoner exchange to be concluded by March 10, when the Taliban and Afghan sides were supposed to start a dialogue for a sustainable ceasefire and to decide the future political roadmap for Afghanistan.
The office of the Afghan National Security Adviser said on Friday that the government had released 550 Taliban prisoners. The Taliban also claim they have freed up to 60 government prisoners.
“War is not one sided from the Islamic Emirate but it is by both sides as they [the Afghan forces] also carry out operations. They issued statements a few days ago that they had reclaimed areas from the Mujahideen after several years. They are also conducting raids,” Stanikzai noted.
“The Kabul administration and the Americans are to be blamed for the fighting since they are not ready for the intra-Afghan dialogue. They have not fulfilled the condition of releasing 5,000 Taliban prisoners before the start of the intra-Afghan dialogue. If they honor the commitment today, intra-Afghan dialogue will start tomorrow,” he said.
Asked if the Taliban violence posed any threat to the agreement, Stanikzai said routine operations against government forces would not create any problem since there was no major difficulty in the agreement with the Americans.
“The Americans committed some violations but such mistakes are possible in a 20-year-old war. But we are in close contact with them and have taken up the issue with the US envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, and the US commander, General Scott Miller, this month and they have promised not to repeat these mistakes in the future,” he said.
“Both sides have formed a channel for the implementation of the agreement. The channel comprises the Taliban negotiators and a team of Americans. They regularly hold meetings in Doha and are making efforts to fully implement the agreement inside Afghanistan,” Stanikzai said.
US military spokesman in Afghanistan Col. Sonny Leggett denied the Taliban allegation in a series of tweets earlier this month and said the US forces in Afghanistan had “upheld and continues to uphold the military terms of the US-TB (Taliban) agreement; any assertion otherwise is baseless.”
He also urged the Taliban to reduce violence.
