Doha Deal Paved the Way for US Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Five years after the last American soldier left Afghanistan, the Doha agreement remains widely seen as the most important framework that determined the end of Washington’s nearly two-decade military presence in the country — an accord presented as a promise of peace, but one that in practice led to the withdrawal of foreign forces.
Direct talks between the United States and the Taliban administration in Doha became public in 2019, although Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, a member of the Taliban administration’s negotiating team, had previously said contacts between the two sides began in 2007. In an interview with Tolo News on 1 September 2023, he said he had been responsible for the talks from 2007 to 2021.
The Doha negotiations focused on four main issues: the withdrawal of foreign forces, counterterrorism guarantees, the start of intra-Afghan talks, and a ceasefire. The process was suspended several times, but after 18 months of talks, Zalmay Khalilzad on behalf of the United States and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar on behalf of the Taliban administration signed the Doha agreement on 29 February 2020.
Under the agreement, the United States accepted that it would withdraw its forces from Afghanistan over a 14-month period, while the number of American troops would be reduced to 8,600 within the first 135 days. In return, the Taliban administration pledged to prevent Afghan soil from being used to threaten the United States and its allies.
Donald Trump, then president of the United States, said on 29 February 2020: “Now, after all these years, it is time to go and bring our people back home.” However, as the withdrawal of foreign forces continued, the war in Afghanistan did not stop, and more areas came under Taliban control.
As the Taliban advanced, provinces fell one after another, and eventually the country’s administration came under Taliban rule. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, deputy prime minister for economic affairs, said on 16 August 2021: “We reached a situation in which it was entirely unexpected that Afghanistan would fall into our hands in this way.”
Despite the collapse of the former system, thousands of American soldiers remained at Kabul airport in the final days to evacuate US citizens, third-country nationals and eligible Afghans. Finally, on 31 August 2021, the last American soldier left Afghanistan, and Kenneth Frank McKenzie, then commander of US Central Command, announced the end of the withdrawal and the American military mission.
Doha, the capital of Qatar, hosted the talks that became one of the most important political processes linked to Afghanistan’s war in the final years of the US presence there. Since then, the agreement has remained central to debates over the collapse of the former system, the Taliban’s return, and the end of the US military presence in Afghanistan.
