US asks UNSC to endorse Taliban deal as initial Afghanistan troop withdrawal begins

The United States has reportedly called on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to vote on a resolution to endorse Washington’s partially secret “peace” deal with the Afghan Taliban, as American troops have started an initial troop withdrawal from the country.

The US demand for the UNSC vote was revealed on Tuesday, following a week of tough negotiations, the diplomats said on Monday, according to AFP.

The sources also said that Washington’s call for the Security Council to adopt its deal with the Taliban “is a rare move in the forum for an accord between a foreign country and an insurgent group.”

Diplomats were also surprised that the agreement included two secret appendixes on the purported fight against terrorism that UNSC members “must approve without even knowing what they say,” with one diplomat describing it as “unbelievable.”

The US signed a deal with the Afghan Taliban in the Qatari capital, Doha, on February 29. The Afghan government was a party neither to the negotiations nor to the deal. Yet, the draft resolution that the US hopes to have passed at the Security Council reportedly demands that Kabul engage in talks with the Taliban.

The diplomatic sources said China had requested that the latest draft of the resolution mention “regional cooperation” to establish peace in Afghanistan. Russia’s position on the resolution remains unclear, but the report said Moscow hinted on Friday that it might oppose the text after Washington rejected a statement endorsing a ceasefire agreement in Syria between Russia and Turkey.

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US declares start of troop pullout from Afghanistan

Meanwhile, the US military confirmed on Monday that American troops had begun leaving Afghanistan for the initial troop withdrawal required in Washington’s deal with the Taliban militants.

A spokesman for the American forces in Afghanistan, Army Col. Sonny Leggett, announced in a statement that the US was moving ahead with plans to cut the number of forces in the country from nearly 13,000 to 8,600 over the next four and a half months.

Another US official, speaking to AP on the condition of anonymity, said that hundreds of troops had already withdrawn from the country as previously planned and that they would not be replaced.

Washington, according to the report, depends solely on the Taliban fulfilling a commitment to preventing “any group or individual, including al-Qaeda, from using the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies.” It does not at all see a role for the Afghan government toward that end.

Taliban militants have since the signing of the deal been attacking Afghan military positions.

The US invaded Afghanistan to topple a Taliban regime in 2001, accusing it of harboring the al-Qaeda terrorist group.

Under the deal, the US troop pullout had to begin within 10 days after the signing of the agreement. Defense Secretary Mark Esper declared on March 2 that he had already approved the commencement of the withdrawal that would later be coordinated by military commanders in Afghanistan.

According to the deal with Taliban, the eventual plan is for the US military to remove all troops from Afghanistan within 14 months if security conditions are met.

The development comes amid a series of institutional crises in Afghanistan, following the double swearing-in on Monday of President Ashraf Ghani and his rival and former chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, who has contested the results of the recent presidential poll.

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