The US signed a deal with the Taliban on February 29 that could pave the way towards a full withdrawal of foreign soldiers from Afghanistan and represent a step towards ending the 18-year-war there. Below are the key details.

What is the agreement?

The deal includes a timeline for the withdrawal of all US and NATO troops from Afghanistan as well as guarantees from the Taliban that it will prevent militant groups including al-Qaeda from using Afghan soil to threaten the security of the US and its allies.

The agreement was signed in the Qatari capital Doha, which is the Taliban’s political headquarters and has hosted talks over the past year and a half.

Senior Taliban leaders took part along with US special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

The agreement lays the groundwork for negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government - known as intra-Afghan talks - to end a war that began after the US launched attacks on Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 hijacked plane attacks.

What happens next?

The US-Taliban agreement calls for a phased withdrawal of American and coalition forces and also requires the Taliban to initiate a formal dialogue with the Afghan government and other political and civil society groups on a permanent nationwide ceasefire and power-sharing in post-war Afghanistan.

Bringing back troops from America’s longest war could be a boost for US President Donald Trump as he seeks re-election in November.

“The US will reduce the number of military forces in Afghanistan to 8,600 and implement other commitments in the US-Taliban agreement within 135 days of the announcement of this joint declaration,” the US and Afghanistan said in a joint statement.

A full withdrawal of all US and coalition forces would occur within 14 months of this deal getting signed, if Taliban fulfil their end of the deal, according to the text of the agreement.

Up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners will be released and the Taliban will release up to 1,000 prisoners by March 10, according to the text of the deal.

The US will work with the UN Security Council to remove Taliban members from sanctions by May 2020, the accord says.

The next step would be for negotiators to work out an agreement for comprehensive ceasefire and the future governance of the country. Officials and experts say this will pose serious challenges as the Afghan government has until now been sidelined.

Even before getting to talks with the Taliban, Afghanistan’s two main political rivals - President Ashraf Ghani and chief executive Abdullah Abdullah - must settle a dispute over which officials, opposition members and activists should negotiate with the insurgents.

That process was further complicated last month by competing victory claims by Ghani and Abdullah in a disputed September 28 election.

What led to the accord?

The prospect of a peace arrangement with the Taliban had been raised by Afghan and US leaders for more than a decade. Momentum towards the latest deal came after Trump appointed Khalilzad as his special envoy to Afghanistan.

Progress had stalled several times, most notably in September when Trump cancelled talks after an attack in Kabul that killed 12, including an American soldier.

Talks began again in late 2019, culminating in a seven-day “reduction in violence” agreement that ended with the Doha signing.

A timeline of key events

December 25, 1979: Soviet Red Army crosses the Oxus river into Afghanistan. In neighboring Pakistan, Afghan mujahideen are assembling, armed and financed by the US for an anti-communist war.

1980s: CIA’s covert Operation Cyclone funnels weapons and money for the war through Pakistani dictator Mohammed Zia-ul Haq.

1983: US President Ronald Reagan meets with mujahideen leaders, calling them freedom fighters, at the White House.

September 1986: The US provides the mujahideen with shoulder-held anti-aircraft Stinger missiles, which turned around the course of the war and sped-up negotiated Soviet withdrawal.

January 1987: Afghan communist president Mohammad Najibullah launches a National Reconciliation Programme to encourage the mujahideen to join a new government of national reconciliation; they refuse.

February 15, 1989: The last Soviet soldier leaves Afghanistan, ending 10 years of occupation.

April 1992: Mujahideen groups enter Kabul as Najibullah tries to flee. He is stopped at the airport and put under house arrest at a UN compound.

1992-96: A power-sharing deal among seven mujahideen leaders falls apart.

1994: The Taliban emerge in southern Kandahar, mainly from the ranks of former mujahideen fighters.

September 26, 1996: The Taliban take Kabul after sweeping across the country with hardly a fight.

1996-2001: Though initially welcomed as an end to the fighting, the Taliban rule with a heavy hand under Mullah Mohammed Omar, imposing strict Islamic edicts, denying women the right to work and girls the right to go to school.

March 2001: The Taliban dynamite the world’s largest standing Buddha statues in Bamyan province, to global shock.

September 9: Two Arab-speaking suicide bombers, posing as journalists with Belgium passports, kill Opposition leader Ahmad Shah Masood in northern Takhar province.

September: Washington gives Mullah Omar an ultimatum: hand over al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and dismantle militant training camps or prepare to be attacked.

October 7: A US-led coalition launches an invasion of Afghanistan.

November 13: The Taliban flee Kabul for Kandahar as the US-led coalition marches into the Afghan capital with the Northern Alliance.

December 5: The Bonn Agreement is signed in Bonn, Germany, giving the majority of power to the Northern Alliance’s key players and strengthening the warlords who had ruled between 1992 and 1996.

December 7: Mullah Omar leaves Kandahar and the Taliban regime officially collapses.

December 13: Hamid Karzai arrives in Kabul; contrary to the Bonn Agreement, militias loyal to warlords also enter the Afghan capital.

December 22: Karzai is sworn in as chairman of a 29-member governing council established under the Bonn Agreement.

2004 and 2009: General elections are held and Karzai is elected president for two consecutive terms, the limit under the Afghan constitution.

April 5, 2014: Front-runners Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah both claim election victory. US Secretary of State John Kerry negotiates a power-sharing deal for a so-called Unity Government, with Ghani serving as president and Abdullah as chief executive.

December 8: American and NATO troops formally end their combat mission, transitioning to a support and training role, though President Barack Obama had authorised US forces to carry out operations against Taliban and al-Qaeda targets.

2015-18: The Taliban surge further, staging near-daily attacks targeting Afghan and US forces; scores of civilians die in the crossfire. An Islamic State group affiliate emerges in the east; the Taliban seize control of nearly half the country.

September 2018: Seeking to fulfil his election promise to bring US troops home, President Donald Trump appoints veteran Afghan-American diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad as negotiator with the Taliban.

2018-19: Khalilzad engages in on-again, off-again talks with the Taliban, mainly in Qatar where the insurgents maintain a political office. The Taliban refuse to negotiate with the Kabul government.

September 9, 2019: After a particularly intense escalation in Taliban attacks, including a Kabul bombing that killed a US soldier, Trump scraps talks with the Taliban.

September 28: Presidential elections are held, but official results are not known for months.

November 24: Trump visits US troops in Afghanistan on Thanksgiving, says the Taliban want to make a deal and signals the Qatar negotiations are back on.

February 15, 2020: Washington says a temporary reduction in violence has been agreed upon with the Taliban as a first step towards a final peace deal.

February 18: Afghanistan’s election commission declares Ghani the official winner of September elections; his rival Abdullah refuses to recognise the results and instead declares himself the winner.

February 29: The US and the Taliban sign a deal in Doha, laying out the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan; the deal also envisions intra-Afghan talks on a future political roadmap.

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