Washington’s envoy to NATO says Taliban reneging on deal

US Permanent Representative to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison said this week the Taliban has not stuck to the deal Washington signed in February in Qatar with the group.

Addressing an online conference in Brussels this week, Hutchinson said: “We never thought this peace process would be easy, and it has not been. We do not think the Taliban is keeping its word under the agreement.”

According to the deal, the Taliban pledged to participate in direct talks with the Afghan government in order to find a political settlement to end the 19-year-old war and to cut all ties with Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

However, Hutchinson said the levels of violence in the country is too high and that both civilians and Afghan troops “have paid a heavy price.”

She called on the Taliban to stop offensives and fulfill the commitment they made in Doha.

“So we are encouraging and asking the Taliban if they are serious about wanting to have a peaceful Afghanistan, that they will keep their word and stop the violence, have a ceasefire; that should be easy enough when they’re at the table talking about peace,” she stated.

Hutchinson also said there is no alternate way to bring peace to Afghanistan – except to push all parties around the negotiating table.

“We are not going to see a lasting peace if we don’t stay at the negotiating table, try to bring the warring factors together to let the Afghan people have the lives that they deserve – in freedom, with education, with a community capability to have businesses that flourish,” she said.