Ghani warns that the US has no authority to release Taliban prisoners

The President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, warned this Sunday, one day after the historic agreement between the Taliban and the United States, that that country does not have the authority to decide on the release of insurgent prisoners, but that it is the decision of the Afghan Government and that, in any case, it will have to negotiate it with the Taliban directly. The peace agreement sealed between the United States and the Taliban on Saturday in Qatar, which also provides for the departure of all the allied troops from Afghanistan in 14 months, provides for the release of some 5 000 insurgent prisoners in exchange for 1 000 members of the Afghan security forces over the next ten days, before the start of the intra-Afghan negotiations.

"There have been no commitments on the release of 5,000 prisoners (by the Afghan government)," the president warned at a press conference in Kabul. Ghani acknowledged that the United States "made requests" for the release of 5,000 Taliban, but said that his government "has clearly stated several times" to Washington that the release or not of the prisoners "is a legal right of the Afghan people. Such a release, Ghani continued, "could be part of (intra-Afghan) negotiations, but it cannot be a precondition.

These statements by Ghani come one day after several Taliban leaders stressed on several occasions in Qatar that the release of the 5,000 prisoners should take place before 10 March, when internal negotiations are due to begin. They indicated that they had negotiated with the USA for their release and that they had handed over to their authorities the lists of those who wished to be released. The release "does not belong to the authority of the Americans, we do not agree with them. This is under the authority of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and could be discussed within the framework of comprehensive negotiations," the Afghan president said. "It is very clear that the United States is facilitating, but facilitating does not mean deciding," he said.

Ghani added that the Afghans "must be sure that those who are released do not rise up against them again and do not return to arms. He reiterated that the release of prisoners could be discussed in intra-Afghan negotiations, to which his government will send an "effective and inclusive" team, but that it "will have limited authority in decision-making, as important decisions are taken by the people of Afghanistan", i.e. the Parliament or a large Assembly of Elders.

"Talks between the Taliban and the United States were limited, but the range of negotiations to be held between the Republic and the Taliban is wide, so we must agree on the agenda first and then start serious business," Ghani said.

Regarding the seven-day period of violence reduction that the Taliban complied with before signing the Doha pact, Ghani said that "it will continue, and our objective is that the reduction of violence be replaced by a ceasefire". The intra-Afghan negotiations will be the next step, after the US-Taliban pact, which should lead to a political agreement to end the war that the Asian country has been suffering for 19 years.