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Success of Brief Afghan Truce Could End America's Longest War

Ayaz Gul

   ISLAMABAD/MUNICH - A temporary truce the United States recently sealed
   with the Afghan Taliban will take effect "very soon" and will require
   the insurgent group to halt major attacks across Afghanistan for seven
   days, a senior U.S. official said Friday.

   The Trump administration official, who spoke on the condition of
   anonymity, discussed rare details of what is being referred to as the
   "reduction in violence" deal. It will bind the Taliban not to launch
   roadside and suicide bombings as well as rocket attacks against both
   Afghan and U.S.-led foreign troops anywhere in the country, the
   official told reporters traveling with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
   in Munich.

   Should insurgents make good on their commitments, the official said,
   the deal would pave the way for a broader peace agreement that U.S. and
   Taliban envoys have negotiated over the past year.

   While the U.S. official declined to say whenthe reduction in violence
   deal wouldtake effect, Afghan Taliban sources said the seven-day period
   would begin February22 and the peace agreement would be signed on
   February29.

   Insurgent sources say international guarantors such as the United
   Nations, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Germany, Norway and
   Qatar, which played host to months of U.S.-Taliban negotiations, would
   witness the signing ceremony.

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