Afghanistan’s hard-line Islamist Taliban rulers say they no longer consider the Doha agreement — a peace deal with the United States that paved the way for the withdrawal of Western forces from the country — to be valid.
Speaking on February 28, the fifth anniversary of the agreement, chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the accord was limited to a particular time frame, which has now expired.
“The Islamic Emirate has its own governance system, and now we are no longer moving forward based on that agreement,” he told the state TV.
Mujahid said that the Taliban had fulfilled its key obligation under the agreement by preventing Afghanistan from becoming a launchpad for terrorist attacks against Washington and its allies.
He called on Washington to “take positive steps to engage with Afghanistan” and help in removing the Taliban leaders from international sanctions lists.
The Doha agreement paved the way for the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in return for the Taliban’s counterterrorism guarantees.
However, crucial parts of the agreement requiring talks among Afghans to form a new transitional government were never fully implemented.
Some U.S. officials have blamed the Doha agreement for prompting the collapse of the pro-Western Afghan republic ahead of the final U.S. military withdrawal on August 31, 2021.
The agreement was negotiated and concluded by the first administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
In a September presidential election campaign debate, he defended the deal as “a very good agreement” and blamed his successor, President Joe Biden, for the death of soldiers during the withdrawal, as well as for leaving behind weapons and failing to enforce the terms of the agreement.
Today, Afghans have mixed views about the agreement.
“The Doha agreement was a positive development because it ended the four-decades-long war in Afghanistan,” Anwar, a resident of the central Ghazni Province, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.
One Kabul resident said negotiations among Afghans would have produced a better outcome for their country.
While the Taliban seized power in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal, no country has yet formally recognized its government.
Inside Afghanistan, the Taliban has established a government led by its clerical leadership.
It has implemented harsh bans on the education, employment, mobility and public role of Afghan women, which has turned it into an international pariah.
The article appeared in the rferl