The United States will withdraw thousands of soldiers from Afghanistan as part of a" peace deal " with the Taliban

The agreement could reduce the number of American soldiers in the country from 14,000 to 8,000 to 9,000.

Washington:

The Trump administration is preparing to withdraw thousands of soldiers from Afghanistan in exchange for concessions from the Taliban, including a ceasefire and a renunciation of Al-Qaeda, as part of an initial agreement to end the nearly 18-year-old war, US officials say.

The deal, which would force the Taliban to begin negotiating a broader peace deal directly with the afghan government, could reduce the number of US troops in the country from 14,000 to 8,000 to 9,000, officials said. This number would be almost the same as when Donald Trump took office.

The plan was developed after months of negotiations between the Taliban and Zalmay Khalilzad, an Afghan-born American diplomat who was appointed by the Trump administration last year to restart negotiations. Officials said that an agreement could be finalized before the Afghan presidential election in September, while reminding that Taliban leaders could wait and that major challenges would remain.

Some officials in the United States and Afghanistan, who question the Taliban's honesty and how the United States can verify whether the Taliban leadership is complying with the proposal, are likely to view the proposal with skepticism. But if approved, it will be one of the most significant steps towards the end of the war, an objective that is increasingly receiving bipartisan support.

"I would say they are 80 or 90% of the way," said one official who, like others, spoke anonymously to discuss the details of the current agreement. "But there is still a long way to go for the last 10 or 20%."

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid refused to comment on the likelihood of an initial deal. In a brief telephone interview on Thursday, he said he did not know when discussions would resume.

"We are optimistic," he said. "Things look promising. We hope that there will be no obstacles, but it will also depend on the seriousness of the Americans."

Khalilzad announced Wednesday in a tweet that he plans to resume his next round of talks with the Taliban in Qatar in the near future and that an agreement would be reached if the group did its part.

Further reductions in US forces would be negotiated through discussions between the Taliban and the afghan government, officials said.

Army General Austin" Scott " Miller, Supreme Commander in Afghanistan, is open to this proposal, said two defense officials, believing that it would protect American interests by maintaining an anti-terrorist force that could strike ISIS and Al Qaeda. . Miller, who took command in Kabul last September, previously said that political negotiations were "absolutely" essential to end the war.

"Neither side will win it militarily, and if neither side wins it militarily, you will have to move forward ... towards a political settlement here," he said in an interview with ABC News in February.

Miller's spokesman, Army colonel Sonny Leggett, refused to comment.

US officials have acknowledged that there are legitimate concerns that the Taliban may not break with Al Qaeda, as requested by Washington, or stand up to the Islamic State. Nevertheless, those responsible can be content with a partial withdrawal of troops that opens the door to new negotiations and keeps the anti-terrorist mission alive while the status quo becomes politically untenable.

The Taliban refused to talk to the afghan government, which he described as a puppet regime, until he reached an agreement with the United States on his troops.

Pentagon spokesman, Cmdr. Sean Robertson said that the Department of Defense had not been ordered to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, a point that other officials also insisted on. Robertson refused to discuss what a partial withdrawal of troops might include, stating that the department did not comment on military planning.

"Our strategy in Afghanistan is about conditions," Robertson said. "Our troops will remain in Afghanistan at appropriate levels as long as their presence is necessary to protect American interests."

Afghan government officials, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the discussions, said they expected that an initial agreement between the United States and the Taliban would include US troop reductions, but they did not know the proposed number or timing.

Officials were pleased to learn that an American proposal would force the Taliban to meet with them. But some have said they fear a partial withdrawal to wrap up the Taliban.

"The Americans call this a peace negotiation, but the Taliban definitely see it as an exit negotiation," said an afghan official.

A State Department official rejected this view, claiming that the US was seeking "peace" and not "withdrawal."

In recent weeks, American visitors to Afghanistan have included navy General Joseph Dunford Jr., chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee; Navy General Kenneth McKenzie, chief of US central Command; and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The task of explaining the negotiations in Afghanistan to the American public was entrusted to Pompeo. When asked on Monday whether he expected a reduction in US forces before the 2020 elections, he said, " This is my directive. The next day, he clarified his remarks, claiming that" there was no deadline " for the mission in that country and accusing the media of misinterpreting his remarks.

The president wants to reduce the forces "as quickly as possible", in accordance with another set of missions, which is to ensure that we have a plan for risk reduction adequate to ensure that there is no terror in Afghanistan, " Pompeo told reporters aboard his plane en route to Thailand.

Trump said this week that he didn't know if all the troops would return from the war before the American elections. "We hope that in the next few days we will be able to get the Taliban to talk," he said.

To reduce the number of troops to 9,000 would require commanders on the ground to make difficult decisions about the bases to close and the missions to reduce, as well as the need to reduce the advisory activities of Afghan troops.

A person familiar with Miller's thinking said that the general would certainly want to keep Bagram Air base, from which the United States launches counter-terrorist attacks in the eastern mountains of Afghanistan. The army is also expected to maintain a significant presence in Kabul, where many bases are located, as well as troops at Kandahar Airfield, the largest U.S. base in the South.

At the same time, American officials stated that German troops would likely maintain their presence in northern Afghanistan and that Italian troops would remain in the West.

However, some Afghan officials fear that a preliminary agreement to withdraw from the United States will weaken their negotiating position in the intra-Afghan negotiations and leave them alone to fight the hardened Taliban.

One of the concerns is that the gains made since the fall of the Taliban could be wiped out if the group, seeking to re-establish an Islamic Emirate, becomes part of a power-sharing government. Women's rights groups are particularly concerned about Taliban restrictions on women and their opposition to girls ' education. But the State Department said it had reached an agreement with the afghan government on "the next steps in the afghan peace process".

In the absence of formal discussions between the afghan government and the Taliban, the militant Islamist group has been willing to meet with a delegation of Afghan leaders in Qatar in recent weeks, on the understanding that the Afghans are not acting as an official government. Although Taliban officials welcomed the welcome, no progress has been made in preserving fundamental freedoms, according to media reports quoting people who attended the meetings.

The State Department refused to comment on the details of the withdrawal agreement, but one official said that "any future reduction or withdrawal of forces will be based on conditions".

State Department officials said that a breakthrough depended on an agreement on four issues: assurances against terrorism, withdrawal of troops, intra-afghan dialogue and a full ceasefire. In March, Khalilzad said that he had reached agreement on a draft containing the first two points, but that a final agreement would not be reached "until everything had been agreed".

Mr. Khalilzad spent the last 10 days in Kabul consulting with Afghans as part of what he described to one of the journalists as his "most productive visit" to the region since becoming special envoy. He will then travel to Pakistan, then Qatar to continue discussions with the Taliban, said a State Department official.

As another sign that a force reduction agreement could soon be concluded, the afghan government appointed a 15-member team on Wednesday to negotiate directly with the Taliban. Meetings with the Taliban and the afghan government would continue after US and Taliban officials had reached their preliminary agreement.

Discussions are continuing at a time when violence across the country remains pervasive, with the Taliban controlling more territory than ever since 2001.

On Sunday, Afghanistan's vice-presidential candidate, Amrullah Saleh, was targeted in an attack in Kabul that claimed at least 20 lives. He has long been an opponent of the Taliban.

Monday, two American soldiers-Spec. Michael Nance, 24, and Pfc. Brandon Kreischer, 20, was killed in Uruzgan province in what officials described as an "insider" attack by an afghan soldier. Fourteen American soldiers died this year as a result of their wounds.

Last year was the deadliest year for civilians in the entire afghan conflict, with 3,804 killed and 7,000 injured, according to the United Nations.
Since the start of the war in 2001, nearly 2,400 American soldiers have died in the country and more than 20,000 have been injured, according to the Pentagon.