Following eighteen months of negotiations in Doha, the United States and the Taliban on Saturday officially signed a peace deal that will pave the way for the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in exchange for a number of solid assurances by the Taliban to the US and its allies. 

The agreement states that the US will fully withdraw its forces over the next 14 months, and that the current force of about 13,000 troops will be reduced to 8,600 within 135 days. Non-US NATO and other coalition forces will also be reduced proportionally over that time. 

Taliban’s top negotiator Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai on Saturday expressed satisfaction over the peace deal signed between the United States and the group in Doha, saying today’s signing of the peace deal was a historic moment for the country.

“Today it was a historic day in the history of Afghanistan,” Stanekzai told TOLOnews’ Sharif Amiri in a live interview in Doha, hours after the peace deal was officially signed by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the deputy leader of the Taliban, and Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, in the presence of representatives of over 30 countries including US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.