The Taliban peace deal is off to a rough start

Ashraf Ghani.
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The United States and the Taliban agreed to a peace deal Saturday that would eventually lead to a full withdrawal of U.S. troops in the region. The pact was always going to be tricky to pull off, but it's already facing hurdles just a couple of days after the signing, Politico reports.

The biggest struggle now is getting the Taliban and the Afghan government to iron out their own peace deal, which, ultimately, is the only thing that can bring full peace to the country, which has been mired in conflict for decades, well before the United States showed up in 2001. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday refused to commit to releasing 5,000 Taliban prisoners as a prerequisite for negotiations, and the Taliban fired back Monday, saying they wouldn't sit down with the government until the prisoners were released.

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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.