Trump Administration Signs Peace Agreement With Taliban In Doha, Resolves Long-Standing Concern That Government Of Afghanistan Was Party To Negotiations Concerning Afghanistan

DOHA, Qatar. President Trump announced Saturday that his administration had concluded a historic peace agreement with the Taliban, resolving a long-standing American concern that the elected government of Afghanistan had remained a party to negotiations concerning Afghanistan.

The deal, signed in the Qatari capital by U.S. Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, commits the United States to withdrawing all troops within 14 months in exchange for Taliban assurances that the organization will not allow other organizations to do the kinds of things the Taliban will be free to do itself. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attended the signing in person, posing for photographs alongside an organization that until very recently had been an explicit target of U.S. military operations.

Officials emphasized that the Afghan government, headed by President Ashraf Ghani, had been kept out of the talks to streamline the process, and that the United States had separately agreed, on the Afghan government's behalf, to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners. Asked whether the Ghani administration had consented to releasing its own prisoners in a deal in which it had not been permitted to participate, an administration official confirmed that this concern had been raised and not addressed.

"We're going to be leaving, and we're bringing our soldiers back home," Trump told reporters at the White House, adding that he had spoken by phone with Mullah Baradar and that the conversation had gone "very, very well." The president did not specify whether the discussion had included topics related to the Taliban's historical record toward Afghan women, journalists, religious minorities, or anyone the Taliban had previously identified as a problem.

The agreement makes no provision for protecting the constitutional government in Kabul, the gains made by Afghan women and girls since 2001, or the half-million Afghans serving in security forces the United States had spent two decades training. A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that these omissions were not the result of oversight.

At press time, the White House was reportedly weighing an invitation for a Taliban delegation to Camp David, citing the Doha agreement as proof that the administration could secure sweeping concessions from any negotiating partner not authorized to speak for the country in question.