U.S. Defense Secretary: Some Taliban Members Willing to Negotiate for Peace

Hours after an unannounced visit to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said on Tuesday, March 12, that some members of the Taliban have shown a "willingness" to negotiate with the Afghan government. According to AFP, Mattis's unannounced trip to Afghanistan comes two weeks after Ashraf Ghani, the country's president, unveiled his plan for peace negotiations with the Taliban. Although the Taliban insurgents have yet to respond to Ghani's proposal, Mattis reported that some leaders of the group have expressed their willingness to sit at the negotiating table. According to the U.S. Defense Secretary, these individuals have made their willingness clear. However, AFP notes that the Taliban has emphasized that it will only negotiate with Washington, not with the Afghan central government. According to the report, in Ghani's plan for these negotiations, the Taliban is to be recognized as a political party in the end. Meanwhile, the group has stated that it considers the current Afghan government to be "lacking legal legitimacy" and has described its peace efforts as "deceptive." At the same time, James Mattis declared that the U.S. wants the peace negotiations in Afghanistan to be led by the Afghans themselves. According to AFP, the U.S. Defense Secretary continued by saying that after 16 years of conflict in Afghanistan, Washington is now seeking "victory." He explained that by "victory," he means that in Afghanistan, "the people of this country and Afghan security forces" should have law enforcement and counter-threat capabilities. Mattis added that with the support of the international community, this will happen in Afghanistan "in a few years." After several years of stagnation in the situation in Afghanistan, the U.S. has refocused on the country with the arrival of Donald Trump, and according to Mattis, is seeking "political reconciliation," not military victory. Donald Trump had issued orders to increase bombing of Taliban positions, including their drug production laboratories and training camps, as part of his serious policies regarding Southeast Asia. The deployment of an additional 3,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan to enhance training and advising of local forces is another action taken by the new U.S. president, raising the number of American soldiers in the country to 14,000. Ghani's proposal for negotiations with the Taliban came after an increase in attacks by the group in various cities and regions of Afghanistan and in response to Trump's new military policies. The Taliban, which is the largest Afghan military group, has claimed to have conducted 472 operations in January of this year alone.