On Thursday, the Pentagon said that the Taliban have failed to hold up their end of the agreement about maintaining peace in their region and terminating their relationship with Al-Qaeda.  

John Kirby, the spokesperson for the Pentagon said, “We are still involved in trying to get a negotiated settlement. The Taliban have not met their commitments”, reported AFP. 

The spokesperson added that the US is committed to retaining their support of the peace agreement with the Taliban which was formalised in Qatar. 

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The agreement required the Afghan insurgent group to substantially decrease violent acts in the country, stop attacks on US military personnel and initiate peace negotiations with the Afghan government.  

In return, the United States would steadily reduce its force level in the country, and remove all forces by May 2021.

Kirby said there is “no change” to the US commitments made in the peace deal.

However, “the Taliban are not meeting their commitments to reduce violence, and to renounce their ties to Al-Qaeda,”, he added. 

Until Taliban fulfils the terms of the deal, he said, “it’s going to be difficult for anybody at that negotiating table” to stand by their own promises.

“In fact, it would not be the wise course,” he added, underling the US commitment to ending the war “in a responsible way.”

The spokesperson said that the United States Department of Defense is currently satisfied with the troops of the US in the country. The US rolled back a major chunk of its troops bringing the number down to 2,500 from 13,000. 

He added that the 2,500 US troops deployed in the country are sufficient to tackle the forces of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, which cause havoc in the region. 

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But he would not say if the Pentagon would cut troop levels to zero by the May deadline.

Kirby said that the actions of the US will depend on the condition of the Kabul-Taliban peace settlement. 

“I would say this to the leaders of the Taliban, that… they make it that much more difficult for final decisions to be made about force presence by their reticence to commit to reasonable, sustainable and credible negotiations at the table,” he said.