Doha: The US and the Taliban have signed a peace agreement aimed at ending the 18-year war in Afghanistan, America's longest.
Taliban fighter-turned-dealmaker Mullah Baradar signed the accord alongside Washington's chief negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad, at a gilded desk in a conference room in a luxury Doha hotel.
The pair then shook hands, as people in the room shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest).
The signing could help President Donald Trump fulfill a key campaign promise to extract America from its “endless wars.” Under the agreement, the US will begin withdrawing thousands of troops in exchange for Taliban commitments to prevent Afghanistan from being a launchpad for terrorist attacks.
If the Taliban meet their commitments, all US troops would leave in 14 months.
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The US invaded Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks to overthrow the Taliban, who had hosted Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida as they planned and celebrated the assault.
The US spent more than $750 billion, and on all sides, the war cost tens of thousands of lives lost, permanently scarred and indelibly interrupted. But the conflict was also frequently ignored by US politicians and the American public.
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Dozens of Taliban members meanwhile held a small victory march in Qatar in which they waved the militant group's white flags, according to a video shared on Taliban websites. “Today is the day of victory, which has come with the help of Allah,” said Abbas Stanikzai, one of the Taliban's lead negotiators, who joined the march.
Under the agreement, the Taliban promise not to let extremists use the country as a staging ground for attacking the US or its allies. But US officials are loath to trust the Taliban to fulfill their obligations.
With inputs from AP
