The recent US-Taliban deal will soon leave a power vacuum in South Asia. Vanda Felbab-Brown, senior fellow in the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, Brookings Institution, visualises the plausible scenarios in an exchange with Pratigyan Das:
Is the recently signed US-Taliban peace deal a compromise?
Well, it’s certainly a compromise. Many deals are at the end of the day compromises. The deal falls short of what (US) Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad was originally asking for, a permanent ceasefire and that intra-Afghan negotiations are far more intense. But he was not able to get it out of Taliban. What ultimately emerged was US troops permanently withdrawing from Afghanistan in exchange for promises by Taliban not to target the US and its allies or allow other terrorist groups to operate from their territory. Taliban has promised to start a dialogue with Afghan government. But then, there is no guarantee how the talks will shape up. Read More…
