Скачать или смотреть Agreement in principle' reached with Taliban to withdraw 5,000 US troops within five months.

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The Trump administration's envoy to Afghanistan said Monday that the United States had reached a preliminary peace deal with the Taliban that will pave the way for a phased withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan and bring an end to America's longest war.

U.S. negotiators have agreed to remove approximately 5,000 American troops from five bases over the next five months if the Taliban fulfills promises to reduce violence and prevent Afghanistan from becoming a haven for terrorists, the U.S. special envoy, Zalmay Kalilzad, told the local news channel TOLO .

The deal – the fruit of months of negotiations between Trump administration officials and Taliban leaders – could allow Trump to declare victory on a core campaign promise as he enters the 2020 reelection cycle. The president has repeatedly said the U.S. should not be engaged in expensive "endless wars."

"We have reached an agreement with the Taliban in principle but of course until the U.S. president agrees with it, it isn't final," Khalilzad said in an interview with TOLO News.


The White House and the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a series of Twitter messages, Khalilzad said he concluded negotiations with the Taliban over the weekend and then traveled to Kabul to brief Afghan leaders.

An aide to Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani said officials were reviewing the deal and talks were ongoing..

"President Ghani ... met with Amb Khalilzad today," Waheed Omer, Afghanistan's director general for public and strategic affairs, said in a tweet. "We will look into the document and discussions with Amb Khalilzad and team will continue."

The move to reduce America's military presence in Afghanistan is fraught with political and military peril. Critics – including some of Trump's strongest supporters – fear a U.S. withdrawal will open the door for a resurgence of al-Qaida, as well as other terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan, such as the Islamic State.