WASHINGTON: Under the Afghan peace deal, the United States will start diplomatic engagement with other members of the United Nations Security Council and Afghanistan to remove members of Taliban from the sanctions list with the aim of achieving this objective by May 29.

The move will be synchronised with the start of intra-Afghan negotiations, expected in the next 10 days.

The deal that the United States and Taliban in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday commits Washington and its allies to withdraw their troops and all non-diplomatic civilian personnel from Afghanistan and to refrain from the threat or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Afghanistan. They also pledge not to intervene in Afghanistan’s domestic affairs.

The deal has 16 references to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, although each reference also carries a clarification that Washington does not recognize this emirate.

Taliban described their government, which was toppled by the US military more than 18 years ago, as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and still use this term to justify their claim over the country.

As a text of the agreement, released in Washington by the US State Department, shows the United States and Taliban have also agreed to “seek positive relations with each other and expect that the relations between the United States and the new post-settlement Afghan Islamic government, as determined by the intra-Afghan dialogue and negotiations, will be positive.”

The United States also agrees to “seek economic cooperation for reconstruction” with the new post settlement Afghan Islamic government as determined by the intra-Afghan dialogue and negotiations, and “not to intervene in its internal affairs.”

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2020