Pakistan behind Afghanistan ceasefire after two decades: Foreign media Report

QATAR – For the first time ever, the Afghan Taliban has announced athree-day ceasefire with the Afghan government over the Eid holiday period.They have ordered their forces to cease operations although they said theywould continue attacking US forces in Afghanistan, Al Jazeera has reported.

The Taliban’s move follows Afghan President Ashraf Ghanilink>’searlier demand from the Taliban to respect a brief unilateral ceasefirewhich the government would enforce over the Eid holiday period.

There have been many offers of temporary ceasefires by the government overthe past two decades but none have yielded a positive response from theTaliban. It was thought that the Taliban had become too fragmented and, atthe same time, too confident that they are winning the war to accept aceasefire.

It appears that pressure from Pakistan on the Taliban has been instrumentalin pushing the Taliban to agree to a ceasefire.

According to Lisa Curtis, deputy assistant to US President Donald Trumplink>,Washington has been pursuinglink>”multiplelines of effort” for bringing peace to Afghanistan and an importantcomponent of that effort was to ensure that Pakistan played “a constructiverole” in it. US and NATOlink> troops inAfghanistan will also observe this truce.

The strategy behind the ceasefire offer is to create a pause in hostilitiesfor a few days which could be extended further. The end game of the Ghaniadministration is to jumpstart military and political dialogue aimed atending the war.