Afghan peace process

US representative Zalmay Khalilzad (left) and Taliban representative Abdul Ghani Baradar (right) sign the US–Taliban deal in Doha, Qatar on 29 February 2020.

Peace processes have taken place during several phases of the Afghanistan conflict, which has lasted since the 1978 Saur Revolution.[1]

The National Reconciliation Policy during the Karmal and Najibullah governments from the mid-1980s to 1992 had modest results.[2]

A "victor's peace" in the 2001 Bonn Agreement followed the US invasion of Afghanistan.[3][4] During the Hamid Karzai presidency (2004–2014), local peace deals took place without high-level support,[5] weakly effective disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs were organised,[6] and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission proposed an Action Plan for Peace, Reconciliation and Justice for transitional justice that was formally adopted by the Afghan government in 2005, to little practical effect.[7] During the Ashraf Ghani presidency, nonviolent resistance movements in Afghanistan, including the Tabassum movement in 2015, the Enlightenment Movement during 2016–2017, Uprising for Change in 2017, and the People's Peace Movement in March 2018, were active[8][9][10] and a brief ceasefire between government forces and the Taliban was held during 16–18 June by both sides simultaneously.[11] The US–Taliban deal, resulting from negotiations starting in 2018 in Doha,[12] led to the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, the collapse of the Afghan Army,[13] and the August 2021 Fall of Kabul to the Taliban.[14]

Violent resistance continued following the Taliban 2021 takeover. The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) argued that a peace process continued to be necessary.[15] On 5 September 2021, Ahmad Massoud of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan involved in the Republican insurgency in Afghanistan called for a mutual ceasefire between the insurgency and the Taliban.[16]

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