Taliban concedes to a week-long temporary ceasefire with the US
A breakthrough in the talks between the US and the Taliban, for the first time since resuming the talks in 2018.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFAfghan pilots stand among aircrafts during the Afghanistan Air Force readiness performance program at a military airfield in Kabul(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Taliban’s leadership council agreed to a temporary ceasefire lasting one week with US forces in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The decision might pave the way to a longer agreement with the US, and an eventual withdrawal of US army troops. Fitting the exiting policy of US President Donald Trump who voiced his desire to take the US out of prolonged conflicts around the world.In a recent New York Times article, it was suggested the US would like to focus its military might on possible future threats from Russia and China.If Trump succeeds in turning this cease fire into a full agreement, he would be able to bring the 18-year-old Afghan War to an end.The US had been operating in the country since 2001 with the objective of capturing Osama Bin Laden.Bin Laden was living in Afghanistan at the time under the protection of the Taliban, he himself was the leader of the radical Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda.Bin Laden was killed by US Special Forces in 2011.The partial cease fire might be a win for Chief US envoy in Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, as up until now the Taliban refused to halt their fighting even during direct talks with the US.The CIA helped fund and train the Taliban during the 1979 Soviet-Afghan war when they were fighting the Red Army, that war lasted a decade. This history is depicted in the 2007 Charlie Wilson's War. Noble Prize-winning Russian language writer Svetlana Alexievich described the Soviet perspective of that war in her 1989 novel Zink Boys.
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