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Trump plans Friday meeting to make arrangements for withdrawal from Afghanistan
Karen DeYoung ,Missy Ryan ,Anne Gearan and Philip Rucker
August 16 at 12:14 PM
U.S. negotiators have made significant advances in recent talks with the Taliban, and the two sides are close to announcing agreement on an initial U.S. troop withdrawal, along with plans to start direct discussions between the militants and the Afghan government, according to U.S. and foreign officials.
President Trump plans to meet Friday with Cabinet officials and other senior national security advisers for a briefing by Zalmay Khalilzad, the chief U.S. envoy to the talks. A U.S. official said Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will also attend the meeting at Trump’s New Jersey golf resort. An initial withdrawal would include roughly 5,000 of the 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
In exchange, the Taliban would agree to renounce al-Qaeda and to prevent it from activities such as fundraising, recruiting, training and operational planning in areas under Taliban control.
A White House official cautioned that Friday’s meeting with Trump may not immediately result in a decision or announcement.
The agreement is also expected to include a statement of Taliban willingness to sit down with representatives of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government to develop a political framework for peace, something has long been a sticking point in the U.S.-Taliban talks.
As technical experts wound up the latest round of U.S.-Taliban talks in Doha, Qatar, last week, Khalilzad traveled to Germany, which is in charge of shepherding the inter-Afghan negotiations, and to Oslo, where those discussions are likely to be held.
Throughout the U.S.-Taliban talks, critics in both Kabul and Washington have questioned U.S. willingness to bypass the Afghan government in its eagerness to meet Trump’s insistence on withdrawal.
The Taliban have not publicly expressed any change in their refusal to negotiate with Ghani. But U.S. officials have said throughout the months of negotiations that any phased withdrawal agreement would be explicitly linked to the start of inter-Afghan talks.
Once the agreement is announced, U.S. officials expect the two Afghan sides to move directly into talks. The agreement is also expected to reference a cease-fire as part of the initial round of those negotiations, although it is unlikely to lead to an immediate halt to the fighting, according to the officials, who spoke about the status of the closed-door negotiations on the condition of anonymity.
It is anticipated that the Afghan talks would develop a road map for Taliban inclusion in government and would address matters including the role of women in Afghanistan and other social issues.
Assuming the talks continue as outlined, discussions between the Afghan sides would also consider the extent to which the United States military could maintain a residual counterterrorism presence in Afghanistan, something that many in the administration, and Congress, believe is imperative.
Following the initial U.S. withdrawal, however, the bulk of American troops would leave within about 18 months. Germany and Italy, who also have troops in Afghanistan under NATO auspices, would expect to time their own withdrawals to the U.S. departure, officials said.
Amid numerous reports of military progress or imminent peace throughout the 18-year war, all sides cautioned that hopes of announcing a deal before the end of August could fall apart or be delayed. Khalilzad, who arrived in Washington late Monday, expects to return to Doha, where his Taliban counterparts will report on their own leadership consultations.
U.S. officials are hoping that the Afghan parties, once they have agreed to meet, will jointly call for a delay in Afghanistan’s presidential election, scheduled for Sept. 28.
In public statements, Ghani — running for a new term — has rejected any delay, and last week said the vote was “vital” to the nation. Ghani’s chief challenger, his former national security adviser Hanif Atmar, has dropped out of the race. Others among the 16 candidates challenging Ghani have said the election must be delayed whether or not a viable agreement is announced.
One candidate, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former warlord and leader of the Hezb-i-Islami party, told supporters at a campaign event Friday that the Ghani government is “weak” and will “collapse” if U.S. forces leave.
Some in Congress are also expected to object to the deal, questioning whether the Taliban, whose military position and control of territory is now better than it has been since the start of the war in 2001, can be trusted to break relations with al-Qaeda. There are also concerns that dissent within Taliban ranks over any deal will force some fighters to break ranks and move to join a growing Islamic State presence in Afghanistan.
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), responding to initial reports of a deal, raised the trust question in a statement. “To trust the Taliban to control al-Qaeda” and other militant groups in Afghanistan “as a replacement for a U.S. counterterrorism force would be a bigger mistake than Obama’s Iranian nuclear deal,” he said. Such an agreement “is not a peace deal. Instead, it is paving the way for another attack on the American homeland and attacks against American interests around the world.”
“I hope President Trump and his team make sound and sustainable decisions about radical Islamist threats emanating from Afghanistan — the place where 9/11 originated,” Graham said.
A White House official sought to play down expectations for Friday’s meeting. Asked whether the president intends to make a decision about troop presence in Afghanistan, he said, “I don’t know that we’ll have any announcement or decision or any information coming out of it one way or the other.”
The official reiterated that Trump has been clear about wanting to bring U.S. troops home from Afghanistan and that remains his long-term priority.
Trump has been frustrated in his desire to announce a withdrawal.
During a visit two years ago to Trump’s Bedminster golf club, where the Friday meeting is taking place, then-Chief of Staff John F. Kelly also assembled military and other officials to talk with the president about Afghanistan.
Officials convinced Trump to have troops stay in Afghanistan and eventually add more troops. The initial withdrawal under the current deal would bring the troop level down to about the 9,000 there when Trump took office.
U.S. commander Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller has long said he could conduct the Afghan mission with fewer troops. Miller wants to keep open Bagram air base, from which the United States launches strikes in Afghanistan’s eastern mountains, people familiar with the general’s thinking said. The military is also likely to want to maintain a robust presence at Kandahar Airfield, the largest U.S. base in the southern part of the country.
Since taking over in September 2018, Miller, a former Special Operations commander, has led an intense air campaign against the Taliban.
Some critics have expressed concern that the United States could be giving away much of its leverage by announcing a troop withdrawal up front, before actual progress in inter-Afghan negotiations has been achieved. Khalilzad, however, may be pressing ahead to avert a unilateral withdrawal announcement by Trump, who last December made a similar surprise announcement on pulling U.S. troops out of Syria, leading then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to resign.
Josh Dawsey contributed to this report.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...b8d6aa-c00e-11e9-a5c6-1e74f7ec4a93_story.html
Karen DeYoung ,Missy Ryan ,Anne Gearan and Philip Rucker
August 16 at 12:14 PM
U.S. negotiators have made significant advances in recent talks with the Taliban, and the two sides are close to announcing agreement on an initial U.S. troop withdrawal, along with plans to start direct discussions between the militants and the Afghan government, according to U.S. and foreign officials.
President Trump plans to meet Friday with Cabinet officials and other senior national security advisers for a briefing by Zalmay Khalilzad, the chief U.S. envoy to the talks. A U.S. official said Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will also attend the meeting at Trump’s New Jersey golf resort. An initial withdrawal would include roughly 5,000 of the 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
In exchange, the Taliban would agree to renounce al-Qaeda and to prevent it from activities such as fundraising, recruiting, training and operational planning in areas under Taliban control.
A White House official cautioned that Friday’s meeting with Trump may not immediately result in a decision or announcement.
The agreement is also expected to include a statement of Taliban willingness to sit down with representatives of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government to develop a political framework for peace, something has long been a sticking point in the U.S.-Taliban talks.
As technical experts wound up the latest round of U.S.-Taliban talks in Doha, Qatar, last week, Khalilzad traveled to Germany, which is in charge of shepherding the inter-Afghan negotiations, and to Oslo, where those discussions are likely to be held.
Throughout the U.S.-Taliban talks, critics in both Kabul and Washington have questioned U.S. willingness to bypass the Afghan government in its eagerness to meet Trump’s insistence on withdrawal.
The Taliban have not publicly expressed any change in their refusal to negotiate with Ghani. But U.S. officials have said throughout the months of negotiations that any phased withdrawal agreement would be explicitly linked to the start of inter-Afghan talks.
Once the agreement is announced, U.S. officials expect the two Afghan sides to move directly into talks. The agreement is also expected to reference a cease-fire as part of the initial round of those negotiations, although it is unlikely to lead to an immediate halt to the fighting, according to the officials, who spoke about the status of the closed-door negotiations on the condition of anonymity.
It is anticipated that the Afghan talks would develop a road map for Taliban inclusion in government and would address matters including the role of women in Afghanistan and other social issues.
Assuming the talks continue as outlined, discussions between the Afghan sides would also consider the extent to which the United States military could maintain a residual counterterrorism presence in Afghanistan, something that many in the administration, and Congress, believe is imperative.
Following the initial U.S. withdrawal, however, the bulk of American troops would leave within about 18 months. Germany and Italy, who also have troops in Afghanistan under NATO auspices, would expect to time their own withdrawals to the U.S. departure, officials said.
Amid numerous reports of military progress or imminent peace throughout the 18-year war, all sides cautioned that hopes of announcing a deal before the end of August could fall apart or be delayed. Khalilzad, who arrived in Washington late Monday, expects to return to Doha, where his Taliban counterparts will report on their own leadership consultations.
U.S. officials are hoping that the Afghan parties, once they have agreed to meet, will jointly call for a delay in Afghanistan’s presidential election, scheduled for Sept. 28.
In public statements, Ghani — running for a new term — has rejected any delay, and last week said the vote was “vital” to the nation. Ghani’s chief challenger, his former national security adviser Hanif Atmar, has dropped out of the race. Others among the 16 candidates challenging Ghani have said the election must be delayed whether or not a viable agreement is announced.
One candidate, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former warlord and leader of the Hezb-i-Islami party, told supporters at a campaign event Friday that the Ghani government is “weak” and will “collapse” if U.S. forces leave.
Some in Congress are also expected to object to the deal, questioning whether the Taliban, whose military position and control of territory is now better than it has been since the start of the war in 2001, can be trusted to break relations with al-Qaeda. There are also concerns that dissent within Taliban ranks over any deal will force some fighters to break ranks and move to join a growing Islamic State presence in Afghanistan.
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), responding to initial reports of a deal, raised the trust question in a statement. “To trust the Taliban to control al-Qaeda” and other militant groups in Afghanistan “as a replacement for a U.S. counterterrorism force would be a bigger mistake than Obama’s Iranian nuclear deal,” he said. Such an agreement “is not a peace deal. Instead, it is paving the way for another attack on the American homeland and attacks against American interests around the world.”
“I hope President Trump and his team make sound and sustainable decisions about radical Islamist threats emanating from Afghanistan — the place where 9/11 originated,” Graham said.
A White House official sought to play down expectations for Friday’s meeting. Asked whether the president intends to make a decision about troop presence in Afghanistan, he said, “I don’t know that we’ll have any announcement or decision or any information coming out of it one way or the other.”
The official reiterated that Trump has been clear about wanting to bring U.S. troops home from Afghanistan and that remains his long-term priority.
Trump has been frustrated in his desire to announce a withdrawal.
During a visit two years ago to Trump’s Bedminster golf club, where the Friday meeting is taking place, then-Chief of Staff John F. Kelly also assembled military and other officials to talk with the president about Afghanistan.
Officials convinced Trump to have troops stay in Afghanistan and eventually add more troops. The initial withdrawal under the current deal would bring the troop level down to about the 9,000 there when Trump took office.
U.S. commander Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller has long said he could conduct the Afghan mission with fewer troops. Miller wants to keep open Bagram air base, from which the United States launches strikes in Afghanistan’s eastern mountains, people familiar with the general’s thinking said. The military is also likely to want to maintain a robust presence at Kandahar Airfield, the largest U.S. base in the southern part of the country.
Since taking over in September 2018, Miller, a former Special Operations commander, has led an intense air campaign against the Taliban.
Some critics have expressed concern that the United States could be giving away much of its leverage by announcing a troop withdrawal up front, before actual progress in inter-Afghan negotiations has been achieved. Khalilzad, however, may be pressing ahead to avert a unilateral withdrawal announcement by Trump, who last December made a similar surprise announcement on pulling U.S. troops out of Syria, leading then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to resign.
Josh Dawsey contributed to this report.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...b8d6aa-c00e-11e9-a5c6-1e74f7ec4a93_story.html
