Then-Vice President Joe Biden meets Afghan National Army Chief of Staff Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi during a tour of the Kabul Military Training Center in 2011. Some Afghan politicians called on President-elect Joe Biden to reevaluate the deal signed in February 2020 between the Trump administration and the Taliban. BRIAN BRANNON/U.S. NAVY
(Bloomberg) -- The Taliban has called on President-elect Joe Biden to honor a U.S. agreement to withdraw all American forces from Afghanistan by May in order to secure intra-Afghan peace talks and end the two-decade-long war.
“Steps must now be taken to end the war, not to prolong it, and the agreement was made for the purpose,” Mohammad Naeem, a senior spokesman in the Taliban’s political office in Doha, said on Monday, referring to their accord with the U.S. signed last February which paves the way for a complete withdrawal of American troops by May in exchange for Taliban security guarantees.
“The lack of complete implementation of the agreement can affect the ongoing process of negotiations,” he added.
Read more .... WNU Editor: U.S. Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken has already said that the Biden administration will be reviewing the peace agreement with the Taliban .... Biden Nominee Will 'Thoroughly Assess' US-Taliban Deal (TOLO News). My prediction. This is not going to be an easy decision .... Joe Biden Will Have to Address the War in Afghanistan—Again (Steve Coll, New Yorker). The war is raging in Afghanistan .... Afghan officials: Taliban attacks, violence kills dozens (AP), and there has been little if any progress on Taliban - Afghan government talks .... No meeting between Taliban, govt teams since a week (Pajhwok Afghan News).
President Trump got a lot of blowback on his decision to make a deal with the Taliban and withdraw US military forces from Afghanistan .... Trump’s Bad Deal with the Taliban (Thomas Joscelyn and Bill Roggio, Politico), and many of these critics are now in the Biden administration, including U.S. Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken .... What Antony Blinken Has Said About Key Foreign Policy Issues (Newsweek).
Update: If this is what the Biden administration decides to do .... Biden to weigh keeping counterterror force in Afghanistan, analysts say (Stars and Stripes), the Taliban will see this as a violation of their deal with the U.S..
