Taliban warn peace deal near breaking point

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan－The Taliban have said that their peace deal with the United States was nearing a breaking point, accusing Washington of violations that included drone attacks on civilians, while also chastising the Afghan government for delaying the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners promised in the agreement.

The Taliban said they had restricted assaults against Afghan security forces to rural outposts, had not attacked international forces and had not attacked Afghan forces in cities or military installations. The Taliban said these limits on their actions had not been specifically laid out in the agreement with the US signed in February.

The Taliban's statement issued on Sunday warned of more violence if the US and the Afghan government continue alleged violations of the deal.

US military spokesman Colonel Sonny Leggett in a tweet overnight denied the Taliban allegation, saying the US forces in Afghanistan had "upheld and continues to uphold the military terms of the US-TB (Taliban) agreement; any assertion otherwise is baseless."

In his tweet, Leggett called for the Taliban to reduce violence and said the US military will continue to come to the aid of Afghanistan's security forces if attacked, in line with the agreement.

Meanwhile, the militants said they had reduced their attacks compared to last year, but said continued violations would "create an atmosphere of mistrust".

The Taliban have accused the Afghan government of using "indefensible arguments" to explain the repeated delays in releasing a promised 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for 1,000 government personnel. The Afghan government's foot-dragging has also left Washington frustrated.

Meanwhile, in Kabul, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced his new Cabinet even as he squabbles with his main political challenger over last year's election results. Ghani's move came even as Afghan mediators－including former Afghan president Hamid Karzai－shuttled between the president and his opponent Abdullah Abdullah, who has also declared himself Afghanistan's president.

Little progress so far

Attempts to negotiate an end to the political turmoil roiling Kabul have made little progress, frustrating the US and potentially derailing the next stage in the Afghan peace process. Washington has threatened to withhold $1 billion in aid this year if Ghani and Abdullah can't reach a compromise.

Washington wants a quick start to intra-Afghan negotiations, the next step in the peace deal it signed on Feb 29. It looked promising when Ghani announced his negotiating team last week, but Abdullah's response to it has been lukewarm and the Taliban have rejected it as one-sided.

The US and NATO have already begun to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. The full withdrawal is expected to be completed in 14 months and is tied to Taliban commitments to fight terrorist groups and help in the battle against the Islamic State group.

The withdrawal is not tied to the success of intra-Afghan negotiations. But US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had traveled to Afghanistan last month to try to break the impasse between Ghani and Abdullah.

Pompeo left without a solution. However, he welcomed last week the news that the Afghan government had put together a negotiating team and made progress toward the prisoner releases.

Agencies via Xinhua