{"id":61943,"date":"2020-02-14T09:26:48","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T01:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=61943"},"modified":"2020-02-14T09:26:50","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T01:26:50","slug":"us-taliban-agree-7-day-reduction-in-violence-in-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=61943","title":{"rendered":"US, Taliban agree 7-day reduction in violence in Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.telesurenglish.net\/news\/US-Taliban-Agree-7-Day-Reduction-in-Violence-in-Afghanistan-20200213-0019.html#\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.telesurenglish.net\/__export\/1581631332190\/sites\/telesur\/img\/2020\/02\/13\/u_s__military_advisers_from_the_1st_security_force_assistance_brigade_sit_at_an_afghan_national_army_base_in_maidan_wardak_provincex_afghanistan_august_6x_2018_.jpg_1718483346.jpg\" alt=\"U.S. military advisers from the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade sit at an Afghan National Army base in Maidan Wardak province, Afghanistan Aug. 6, 2018.\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>BRUSSELS, Feb 14 (NNN-TELESUR) &#8212; United States Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced that they\u2019ve secured a seven-day reduction in violence in talks with the Taliban to help seek a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It is our view that seven days, for now, is sufficient but in all things, our approach to this process will be conditions-based, I will say it again, conditions-based,&#8221; Esper told reporters in Brussels, dubbing his meetings with NATO colleagues &#8220;productive.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Pentagon chief did not say when the partial truce would begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.telesurenglish.net\/news\/afghan-president-reports-progress-in-us-taliban-talks-20200211-0021.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>&nbsp;last week that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told him that &#8220;remarkable progress&#8221; had been made in talks to achieve an agreement for the withdrawal of around 13,0000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan, a primary foreign policy objective for President Donald Trump.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This new agreement is part of the renewed peace talks with the Taliban, which were restarted in December 2019 after President Donald Trump abruptly halted negotiations with the insurgents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Sept 7 as Trump decided to unilaterally cancel talks with Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban leaders after the group claimed the attack in Kabul that killed a U.S. soldier and 11 civilians, despite already having already reached a draft peace deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet the new talks have not seen a reduction of violence in Afghanistan with the Taliban staging attacks across the country virtually every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the war not showing signs of reaching a near end, Afghanistan continues to be Washington\u2019s longest conflict in its history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was started after the Sept 11 attacks in New York City when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan as part of the so-called &#8220;war on terror&#8221; to dismantle Al-Qaeda by removing the Taliban from power.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Almost US$975 billion has been spent and approximately between 150,000 to 220,000 people have died. &#8212; NNN-TELESUR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BRUSSELS, Feb 14 (NNN-TELESUR) &#8212; United States Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced that they\u2019ve secured a seven-day reduction in violence in talks with the Taliban to help seek a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan. &#8220;It is our view that seven days, for now, is sufficient but in all things, our approach to this process will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,215],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61943"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}