Afghan president objects to Taliban prisoner release in U.S., Taliban peace deal

Ashraf Ghani.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday said his government has not signed off on a United States peace agreement pledge to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners by March 10.

The U.S. and the Taliban reached a deal Saturday that is poised to end the sides' 18-year conflict in Afghanistan. The main conditions of the agreement are a phased U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in exchange for the Taliban denying extremist groups from using Afghanistan as a base to launch attacks on the U.S. and its allies. It also stipulated the U.S. will work to "expeditiously release" the Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government in the hopes of igniting peace talks between the government and the Taliban by the March deadline.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.