Despite signs of progress, the level of violence by the radical Taliban in Afghanistan remains high, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said Wednesday.
“Despite signs of progress, the level of Taliban violence remains high. We expect the Taliban to adhere to their commitments to reduce violence to allow the release of detainees to go smoothly and the peace process to go well”, – he wrote on Twitter.
Earlier, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani signed a decree to pardon and release Taliban prisoners.
“President Ghani issued the decree this evening to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners starting Saturday on a list provided by the Taliban. “The Taliban have previously agreed to release up to 1,000 detainees by Afghan authorities. I call on both sides to immediately begin negotiations on the details of this issue in Doha, Qatar”, – Khalilzad wrote.
According to him, if implemented, it will be a significant step towards peace.
The Taliban have taken steps to reduce attacks on coalition forces and cities, but “they are killing too many Afghans in the province,” the State Department said in a statement on Wednesday.
“This has to change”, – the document said.
Earlier, at a ceremony in Qatar, the U.S. and Taliban signed the first peace agreement in more than 18 years of war, which includes the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan in 14 months and the start of an inter-Afghan dialogue in March following a prisoner exchange deal. The U.S. has pledged to reduce the number of troops in that country to 8,600. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday the U.S. believes the Taliban leadership is doing everything in its power to complete the deal.