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MONDAY,MARCH2,2020| THEGLOBEANDMAILO NEWS | A
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani
rejected on Sunday a Taliban de-
mand for the release of 5,000 pris-
oners as a condition for talks with
Afghanistan’sgovernment and
civilians – included in a deal be-
tween the United States and the
Islamist militants.
“The government of Afghanis-
tan has made no commitment to
free 5,000 Taliban prisoners,” Mr.
Ghani told reporters in Kabul, a
day after the deal was signed in
Qatar to start a political settle-
ment aimed at ending the United
States’ longest war.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo told CBS’sFace the Nation
program there had been prisoner
releases from both sides in the
past, and voiced hope that nego-
tiations would begin in the com-
ing days between the Afghan gov-
ernment and the Taliban.
“It’s going to be rocky and
bumpy,” Mr. Pompeo said. “No
one is under any false illusion
that this won’t be a difficult con-
versation.”
Western diplomats see chal-
lenges ahead for U.S. negotiators
as they shepherd negotiations be-
tween Mr. Ghani’sgovernment
and the Taliban, who ruled Af-
ghanistan from 1996 to 2001 and
imposed many restrictions on
women and activities deemed
“un-Islamic.”
Under the accord, the U.S. and
the Taliban are committed to
work expeditiously to release
combat and political prisoners as
a confidence-building measure,with the co-ordination and ap-
proval of all relevant sides. The
agreement calls for up to 5,
jailed Taliban prisoners to be re-
leased in exchange for up to 1,
Afghan government captives by
March 10.
On the issue of the prisoner
swap, Mr. Ghani said, “It is not in
the authority of United States to
decide, they are only a facilitator.”
Mr. Ghani told CNN on Sunday
that U.S. President Donald Trump
had not asked for the release of
the prisoners and that the issue of
prisoner releases should be dis-
cussed as part of a comprehen-
sive peace deal. The political con-
sensus needed for such a major
step does not currently exist, Mr.
Ghani said.
Mr. Ghani said key issues need
to be discussed first, including theTaliban’s ties with Pakistan and
other countries that had offered it
sanctuary, its ties with what he
called terrorist groups and drug
cartels, and the place of Afghan-
istan’s security forces and its civil
administration.
“The people of Afghanistan
need to believe that we’ve gone
from war to peace, and not that
the agreement will be either a
Trojan horse or the beginning of a
much worse phase of conflict,”
Mr. Ghani added. He said verifia-
ble mechanisms were needed to
ensure commitments made are
actually delivered.
The accord was signed on Sat-
urday by U.S. special envoy Zal-
may Khalilzad and Taliban politi-
cal chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Ba-
radar, witnessed by Mr. Pompeo.
Iran on Sunday dismissed theagreement as a pretext to legiti-
mize the presence of U.S. troops
in Afghanistan.
“The United States has no legal
standing to sign a peace agree-
ment or to determine the future
of Afghanistan,” Iran’s Foreign
Ministry said in a statement re-
ported by state media.
Under the agreement, the U.S.
is committed to reducing the
number of its troops in Afghanis-
tan to 8,600 from 13,000 within
135 days of signing. It also is com-
mitted under the accord to work
with allies to proportionally re-
duce the number of coalition
forces in Afghanistan over that
period, if the Taliban forces ad-
here to their security guarantees
and ceasefire.REUTERSAfghanPresidentrejectsTalibanprisonerreleaseunderU.S.deal
ABDULQADIRSEDIQIKABUL