The US and the Taliban have reached an agreement to end the bloody struggle in Afghanistan that has been going on for almost twenty years.
The distinctive American envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban representative signed the provisional peace deal in Qatar, Doha on Saturday.
US Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo had come to Qatar to witness the signing of the agreement. Among other things, the agreement provides for a schedule for the gradual withdrawal of Americans and for starting peace negotiations between all parties involved.
All US and other NATO forces could be withdrawn from the country in fourteen months if the Taliban met the terms of the agreement.
In the first 135 days, the US and NATO allies could withdraw the first troops from five military bases in Afghanistan. Shortly before the signing, Pompeo said that the Taliban, for example, undertake to “embrace” the progress made since 2001 for the position of women.
The Taliban must also renounce all ties with the al-Qaeda terror network and combat the Islamic State movement. Abdul Ghani Baradar said he wants to keep to the agreements made with the US. He continues to strive for an Islamic government of the country.
If the agreement is indeed complied with, then twenty years of struggle in Afghanistan will come to an end. Almost immediately after the attack on the Twin Towers on 9 September 2001, the United States criticized the Taliban.
Under the name Enduring Freedom, a coalition in which Great Britain, Australia and France, among others, invaded, invaded Afghanistan, the home of the terror movement.
Although their leader Osama Bin Laden was able to escape, the regime was defeated reasonably quickly. A new government arrived in the capital Kabul, led by Hamid Karzai.
In the following years, the Netherlands also sent soldiers to Afghanistan. Between 2006 and 2010 they were stationed in Uruzgan. The coming years followed a training mission in Kunduz supported by Groenlinks.
In the end, the Americans also managed to get hold of Osama bin Laden. In May 2012, an American team eliminated Navy Seals in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where he had entrenched himself with immediate family members and confidants. Operation Neptune Spear was the name of the liquidation mission authorized by President Obama. “Geronimo” was the code name for target bin Laden.