Tentative deal to end hostilities reached by Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah

Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani, right, and his rival, Abdullah Abdullah (file photo by AFP)
Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani and his rival, Abdullah Abdullah, have reached a preliminary deal to end the bitter hostilities between them, Abdullah says.

“We have made progress in negotiations & reached tentative agreement on a range of principles. Work on details is underway to finalize the agreement,” Abdullah tweeted on Friday.

Abdullah, a former official, has contested the results of the last presidential election in Afghanistan last year, which Ghani won. Abdullah held a parallel inauguration ceremony for himself simultaneously with Ghani in March, but the international community only recognizes Ghani.

The dispute represented a distraction as the war-torn country battles the coronavirus pandemic. The virus has so far infected 2,200 people across Afghanistan and killed 164. The Taliban militant group has also intensified its attacks against the government despite a deal with the United States.

“We hope to finalize the political agreement at the earliest so that we can pay undivided attention to tackling COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring a just, dignified & lasting peace, & confronting the security & economic challenges in a spirit of national unity & solidarity,” Abdullah added.

In the election last year, Abdullah was seeking the presidency for the third time, after losing in 2009 and 2014.

Following the 2014 presidential election, Afghanistan was struck by a similar power crisis. Back then, Ghani and Abdullah fought a close and angry race that sparked widespread allegations of fraud and saw the United States step in to broker an awkward power-sharing agreement between the rivals under which Ghani became president and Abdullah became “chief executive.”

AFP on Friday quoted an Afghan official, who asked not to be named, as saying that Abdullah had made a multifaceted proposal to Ghani that would see Abdullah being appointed to lead eventual peace negotiations with the Taliban while also getting a 50-percent share of government positions.

The official added that Abdullah would also gain the title of “executive prime minister,” stressing that the Afghan president had not accepted the offer.

On Thursday, Ghani’s second vice-president, Sarwar Danish, acknowledged that Abdullah would be leading the country’s peace council. “Efforts are underway to finalize an agreement with Dr. Abdullah within the framework of a National Participation Government,” he said.

Afghanistan has seen a surge in violence despite the US-Taliban deal, which was signed in February. Under the deal, the Taliban agreed to halt their attacks in return for the US’s phased withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan and a prisoner exchange with the Afghan government, which was not a party to the talks or the deal.

The Kabul government and the militant group have been discussing the prisoner exchange since early April.

While they have swapped a number of prisoners as part of the process, the exchange has faced hurdles.