As the US and Taliban close in on a peace deal, confusion about the nature of the militant group’s relationship with the Afghan government lingers. While unnamed Taliban commanders have claimed the struggle against Kabul will continue, leading US diplomats insist that peace underlies their budding agreement.
Nine rounds of negotiations in Doha, Qatar, are close to yielding a peace agreement between US forces and the Taliban, a Sunni Islamist militant group that became Washington’s primary adversary after being thrown out of power by the US invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001. While US diplomats have insisted that their agreement with the Taliban includes a pledge to seek peaceful resolution with the Washington-allied government in Kabul, two unnamed Taliban leaders told Reuters for a Monday story that their struggle with the Afghan government would not end when the US exits the country.