US seeks Taliban's consent to extend stay of troops in Afghanistan

(Karachi) The United States has sought the Taliban's consent to extend the stay of American troops in Afghanistan for another three or six months after the May 1 deadline, Tolo News reported on Wednesday.

Under the US-Taliban peace pact, US forces must leave the country by May 1. However, the Taliban has not taken any decision over the US request. The militant outfit has asked the US administration to release some 7,000 prisoners and remove names of Taliban officials from the UN blacklist.

“The Americans have asked for the extension of their troops for another three or six months, but the Taliban insist on the implementation of the Doha agreement,” said Faiz Mohammad Zaland, a university lecturer in Kabul.

Meanwhile, the deputy head of the High Council of National Reconciliation, Assadullah Saadati, has said that the upcoming UN-led meeting on Afghanistan in Turkey will be a destiny-making conference.

He stated, “We will reach a conclusion and a settlement on the issue of Afghanistan at the Turkey conference.”

A few days ago, United States President Joe Biden said that withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan by the May 1 deadline would be 'hard to meet'. The president cited "tactical reasons" for the delay, but clarified it is not the US government's intention to keep the troops for a long time in the war-torn country.

He said that US soldiers must leave Afghanistan in a safe and orderly manner. "If we leave, we're going to do so in a safe and orderly way," he stated.

In February 2020, a deal was struck between the United States and the Taliban in which it was agreed that Taliban prisoners will be released from Afghan prisons before peace talks between the militant group and the government.

On August 10, Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani issued a decree to release the final batch of prisoners demanded by the Taliban as a condition to move to peace talks.

Later, the Afghan government released the Taliban inmates, kicking of intra-Afghan peace talks. The two sides continued their discussions for months but are only able to agree on procedural rules of the negotiations during this period.