Bumpy Road Ahead as Trump Rejoices Over US-Taliban Deal
POLITICS / K. Venkateshwar Rao 3 MARCH 2020 The recent US-Taliban deal might have given President Donald Trump a reason to rejoice, but Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s rejection of the Taliban prisoner release clause in the US deal and Afghan women’s disappointment at the return of the Taliban to power cast a large shadow over the deal. Afghan President Ghani: US is ‘Only a Facilitator’ Ghani remarked: “is not in the authority of the United States to decide, they are only a facilitator” a day after the deal was signed in Qatar, Doha. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo observed that “talks between the Afghan government and Taliban groups will be “rocky and bumpy, but for the first time the conversation will be among the Afghan people.” All these indicate that a topsy-turvy road is ahead for the deal. The Taliban wants the release of their 5,000 prisoners before they start negotiations, while the Afghan government wants to use those detainees as a bargaining chip to persua