AGENCY
kabul, Mar 4
Five years after the fall of Kabul, the Taliban government in Afghanistan has stated that the peace plan signed with the US will no longer be considered valid. This peace plan – The Doha Plan – was signed in 2020 between the first Trump administration and the Taliban to bring an end to the 20-year-long war in Afghanistan.
This deal also called for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and is considered a historical event due to the return of the Taliban regime in the Central Asian country.
Taliban Rejects Doha Plan
In another shock move, the Taliban have stated that the peace agreement signed with the US is “no longer valid.”
Speaking to state-owned Kabul TV on Friday, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesperson stated that the extremist regime has its own governance system and will “no longer move according to that accord”. As per local reports, the Taliban stated it has upheld its agreements under the Doha pact and urged the US to do its part.
What Is The Doha Plan?
The Doha Plan, also known as the U.S.-Afghanistan Peace Agreement, was signed by Abdul Ghani Baradar, a senior Taliban leader, and Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan’s peace under the first Trump administration.
This deal, notably, did not involve the Afghanistan government at the time and led to the collapse of the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces.
What Were The Key Conditions Of The Pact?
One of the key agreements in the Doha pact was the withdrawal of US troops and NATO forces from Afghanistan.
Along with this, the Taliban stated that it will not allow any members or groups such as al-Qaeda, ISIS-K and others to use Afghanistani soil to threaten the security of the United States.
This measure, which focused on the counter-terrorism commitment by the Taliban, however, only focused on al-Qaeda, and not other terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed.
The peace deal also called for the removal of UN sanctions on the Taliban and the release of Taliban prisoners by the Afghan government.
Another key aspect of the agreement was the talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government at the time. However, due to the lack of inclusion of the Ashraf Ghani government, tensions remained high.
After the deal was signed, the Afghan government rejected a prisoner exchange and stated that the government “made no such commitment to free 5,000 Taliban prisoners” and added that “United States is not the authority” in the case.
The US government also stressed the protection of women’s rights during the peace deal.
However, since their takeover, the extremist regime has drastically clamped down on women’s rights in the country, starting from taking away the right to education and the right to work, among many others.
