Trump Signs Peace Agreement With Taliban From Which Afghan Government Was Excluded, Resolving Long-Standing Concern That The Country Being Negotiated Over Was Party To The Negotiations

The Filing

DOHA, Qatar. President Donald J. Trump moved decisively to end America's longest war on Saturday, signing a peace agreement with the Taliban that streamlined the negotiations by omitting the elected government of Afghanistan, an entity that had previously complicated all discussion of Afghanistan by insisting on being present for it.

The agreement, formally titled to acknowledge that the United States does not recognize the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as a state, was signed by a U.S. special envoy and a Taliban deputy leader as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo looked on. The arrangement resolved a long-standing diplomatic bottleneck in which a country's future could not be settled without that country. Officials confirmed that the Afghan government, headed by President Ashraf Ghani, learned of the terms governing its prisoners, its territory, and its survival the way most Americans did, which is to say afterward.

Under the deal, the United States agreed to withdraw all troops within fourteen months in exchange for Taliban assurances, and the Afghan government agreed, without having been asked, to release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners. Administration officials praised the arrangement as a model of efficient diplomacy. "You move a lot faster when the people who actually live there aren't in the room slowing everything down," said one source within the administration, adding that the Taliban had proven to be reasonable negotiating partners now that they had been handed a withdrawal timeline and a calendar.

The President, who had campaigned on ending what he called "endless wars," hailed the breakthrough and announced that he intended to meet personally with Taliban leaders, a gesture he had not extended to Afghanistan's actual head of state. Days later, Trump spoke by phone with the Taliban's chief negotiator and reported that the two had enjoyed "a good conversation," a warmth observers noted he had rarely expressed for the partners the United States was preparing to leave behind.

Supporters of the agreement said it honored the will of the American people, who wanted the war over, and noted that the will of the Afghan people would be addressed at a later date by whoever happened to be holding the country at the time. The deal set a withdrawal deadline of May 2021, a date the administration described as the beginning of peace and which others described as the beginning of a countdown.

At press time, the Taliban had agreed in writing to pursue a negotiated political settlement with the Afghan government, a body the United States had just spent fourteen months of talks establishing it did not need to speak to.

Who Benefits

§Donald J. Trump, who secured a signed agreement to campaign on as the fulfillment of his promise to end the war in Afghanistan, eight months before facing reelection.
§The Taliban, who received a formal ceremony, a U.S.-guaranteed troop withdrawal timeline, the release of up to 5,000 of their fighters, and recognition as the only Afghan party worth negotiating with.
§Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban deputy who obtained a signing-table photograph with the U.S. Secretary of State and, days later, a direct phone call with the President of the United States.
§The government of Qatar, which hosted both the negotiations and the Taliban's political office, gaining diplomatic prestige as the indispensable venue for the American departure.
§Pakistan's military and intelligence establishment, longtime backers of the Taliban, whose preferred Afghan faction was elevated to America's sole counterparty.
§The future Taliban government of Afghanistan, which inherited a fixed U.S. departure schedule, a depleted Afghan security partner, and a deal negotiated over the heads of everyone it would soon be governing.

Sourced to the public record · presented without editorial embellishment