US Deal With Taliban Has 'Inherent Flaw' And 'Is In Trouble,' Says Charlie Sennott

United States Afghanistan Peace Deal — U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, left, and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban group's top political leader sign a peace agreement between Taliban and U.S. officials in Doha, Qatar, Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020.

Hannah Uebele is a producer for Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and previously worked as associate producer for Boston Public Radio. She graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. in English and Environmental Studies. She's a proud Delawarean but has found herself saying "wicked" more and more often, so the Bostonian metamorphosis is well underway.Contact: hannah_uebele@wgbh.org

March 02, 2020

Updated August 07, 2023

The United States and the Taliban agreed to a deal on Saturday that would help bring to a close the two-decade-old conflict in Afghanistan. U.S. troops would be withdrawn from the country, dependent upon the Taliban ending ties with Al Qaeda. Another piece of the negotiation would be the release of Taliban prisoners being held by the Afghan government. WGBH News Analyst Charlie Sennott joined Boston Public Radio on Monday to speak about why he thinks the deal is flawed and already unraveling.

"The deal is in trouble — there was an inherent flaw which is that they didn't include the Afghan government in structuring the deal," he said. "When they said that a key element of the agreement would be for 5,000 Taliban prisoners to be released, you can't just presume [the Afghan government] is going to do what you tell them."

Ashraf Ghani, president of Afghanistan, was interviewed yesterday by Fareed Zakaria regarding the peace deal. The interview gave hope that Ghani is open to negotiations, if included in the deal, Sennott said.

"The way you can remain hopeful here is from what [Ghani] said last night," he said. "He seemed to have such a good bearing and such good will, so it's not impossible that they bring the Afghan government into the negotiation and come up with a formula for a staged release overtime for these prisoners."