MONITORING (SW) – Washington's top negotiator with the Taliban said on Friday peace will require reliable assurances from Afghanistan and Pakistan that neither side’s territory is used to threaten the other.
U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad visited Islamabad on August 1 and 2 and held discussions with Pakistani leadership on developments in the Afghan peace process. In his meetings with Prime Minister Imran Khan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and Chief of Army Staff General Javed Bajwa, Ambassador Khalilzad outlined the positive momentum in the Afghan peace process and next steps. They also discussed the role Pakistan has played in support of the process and additional positive steps Pakistan can take, the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said.
As Ambassador Khalilzad discussed in Afghanistan and Pakistan, consolidating peace will require reliable assurances from Afghanistan and Pakistan that neither side’s territory is used to threaten the other’s. Such assurances on top of an intra-Afghan comprehensive peace agreement will allow for increased regional economic integration, connectivity, and development, he said in a tweet.
A day earlier, the Washington Post reported that the proposed agreement, which would require the Taliban to begin negotiating a larger peace deal directly with the Afghan government, could cut the number of American troops in the country from roughly 14,000 to between 8,000 and 9,000. That number would be nearly the same as when President Trump took office.
Additional cuts to U.S. forces would be negotiated as part of discussions involving the Taliban and the Afghan government, the report said.
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