Report: Taliban Reaches Agreement with US to Block al Qaeda, Islamic State from Afghanistan by Diana Stancy Correll - Washington Examiner
The Taliban is on board with blocking al Qaeda and the Islamic State from entering Afghanistan to plot terrorist attacks, according to a new report.
Such an agreement has been a requirement that the U.S. has pushed for since last July, and it comes as the U.S. and the Taliban are participating in discussions in Doha, Qatar, about how to resolve the conflict in Afghanistan.
But still on the negotiating table is one of the Taliban’s main priorities: removing U.S. troops from Afghanistan. A source familiar with the deal told the Wall Street Journal conversations are continuing concerning the status of the approximately 14,000 U.S. troops in the region, as are discussions for future plans of U.S. bases in Afghanistan that the Taliban wants closed.
The troops in Afghanistan are largely responsible for advising and training Afghan security forces as part of the Resolute Support Mission, which was first launched in 2015 after the NATO combat mission formally ended in 2014…