US Announces Week-long Partial Truce With Taliban

The United States has secured a seven-day reduction in violence in talks to help seek a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan, Pentagon chief Mark Esper said Thursday

Brussels, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Feb, 2020 ) :The United States has secured a seven-day reduction in violence in talks to help seek a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan, Pentagon chief Mark Esper said Thursday.

The announcement came as NATO defence ministers met in Brussels and a day after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani reported "notable progress" in negotiations with the Islamist insurgents.

"The United States and the Taliban have negotiated a proposal for a seven-day reduction in violence," Esper told reporters, dubbing his meetings with NATO colleagues "productive." "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 told AFP that the group would begin a "reduction of violence" on Friday.

"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."