Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned “the upsurge in violence” that has followed the signing of a peace deal between the United States and the Taliban, whose attacks threaten to undermine their upcoming negotiations with Afghanistan’s central government.
“The upsurge in violence in parts of Afghanistan over the last couple days is unacceptable,” Pompeo told reporters at the State Department Thursday morning. “In no uncertain terms, violence must be reduced immediately for the peace process to move forward.”
Pompeo presided over the signing of a historic agreement with the Taliban on Saturday, which is intended to set the table for unprecedented talks between the militant group and the U.S.-backed government in Kabul and a withdrawal of American troops from the country. Yet Taliban fighters quickly resumed their attacks on Afghan forces, maintaining that the agreement only bound them to stop attacking U.S. soldiers.
“If the Taliban are not going to lower violence,” Army Gen. Scott Miller, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, warned Tuesday, “that causes a risk to the agreement.”
American forces conducted their first airstrike in 11 days on Wednesday, one day after the Taliban launched 43 separate assaults. That said, Pentagon officials downplayed the significance of the attacks.
“There are no attacks on 34 provincial capitals, there are no attacks in Kabul,” Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a Wednesday hearing. “There’s no high profile attacks, there’s no suicide bombers, there’s no vehicle-borne suicide, no attack against the U.S. forces, no attack against the coalition.”
Pompeo also credited Taliban leaders with trying to honor the deal. “We have seen the senior Taliban leadership working diligently to reduce violence from previous levels during similar time periods,” he said. “And so, we still have confidence that the Taliban leadership is working to deliver on its commitments.”
President Trump’s administration agreed to a withdrawal timeline that would extricate the U.S. military from Afghanistan “within 14 months” if the Taliban keeps its promise to renounce terrorism and begin negotiations with the Kabul government. Those negotiations are scheduled tentatively to begin on March 10, but the preparations have been stymied by a disagreement over whether the U.S.-backed government has to release thousands of Taliban prisoners before they meet with the Taliban in Norway.
“It is not reasonable or logical to release 5,000 prisoners before the Taliban agrees to the Afghan people’s demand for a ceasefire,” a spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Wednesday.
At the same time, Ghani is embroiled in a dispute with his top political rival, a former ally who claims that he was cheated out of victory in the most recent Afghan presidential elections. That controversy makes it harder for the Afghan side to identify a delegation to negotiate with the Taliban leaders.
“The future of this peace process isn’t just about what we do or what the Taliban does,” Pompeo said, in an implicit warning to Afghan officials. “We — the United States has now opened a door for you, the Afghan people, to come to the table [and] determine the future of your country. We’ll stand with you. We’re ready to support you. Do not squander this opportunity.”
