BRUSSELS: The United States has secured a seven-day reduction in violence in Afghanistan that it hopes will allow it to strike a deal with the Taliban, officials said on Thursday.

The announcement came a day after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani reported “notable progress” in negotiations with the militants.

“The United States and the Taliban have negotiated a proposal for a seven-day reduction in violence,” US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said after a Nato meeting in Brussels.

“We’ve said all along that the best, if not the only, solution in Afghanistan is a political agreement. Prog­ress has been made on that front and we’ll have more to report on that soon, I hope.”

Esper did not say when the partial truce would begin, but on Wednesday a Taliban official had said the group would begin a “reduction of violence” on Friday.

Pompeo says peace talks have made real progress in the last few days

“It is our view that seven days for now is sufficient but in all things our approach to this process will be conditions based, I will say it again, conditions based,” Esper said.

“So it will be a continual evaluative process as we move forward, if we go forward.”

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking to reporters on board a plane to the Munich Security Conference where he is expected to meet Ghani, said talks had “made real progress over the past couple of days”. “We hope we can get to a place where we can get a significant reduction in violence not only on a piece of paper but demonstrated, the capability to actually deliver a serious reduction in violence in Afghanistan,” he said.

“If we can get there, if we can hold that posture for a while, then we’ll be able to begin the real, serious discussion, which is all the Afghans sitting at a table, finding a true reconciliation, a path forward.”

Washington and the Afghan militants have been locked in gruelling talks that have stretched over more than a year, seeking an end to what has already become America’s longest war.

Citing Afghan and US officials, the New York Times had reported that President Donald Trump had given conditional approval to a deal with the Taliban to allow him to start withdrawing US troops.

“It will be a difficult set of conversations, one that’s long overdue,” Pompeo said. “It would also give us the opportunity to reduce the footprint not only for America’s forces there but for all forces.”

The United States currently has between 12,000 and 13,000 troops in Afghanistan, more than 18 years after it invaded the country to overthrow the then Taliban government in the wake of the Sept 11 attacks.

The only other time there has been a Taliban ceasefire since the government’s overthrow was in 2018, during the three days of Eidul Fitr.

It led to moving scenes such as Afghans sharing ice cream with Taliban fighters and snapping selfies. But afterwards, the violence resumed.

The number of clashes between the militants and US-backed government forces jumped to record levels in the last quarter of 2019, according to a recent US government watchdog report.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2020