KABUL, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan Taliban has confirmed the outfit will sign a peace accord with the United States later this month, paving the way for withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesman said Friday.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a purported Taliban spokesman, wrote on Twitter that following lengthy negotiations "both parties agreed to sign the finalized accord in the presence of international observers" on Feb. 29.
"Both parties will now create a suitable security situation in advance of agreement signing date, extend invitations to senior representatives of numerous countries and organizations to participate in the signing ceremony, make arrangements for the release of prisoners, structure a path for intra-Afghan negotiations with various political parties of the country and finally lay the groundwork for peace across the country with the withdrawal of all foreign forces and not allowing the land of Afghanistan to be used against security of others...," Mujahid said.
Earlier on Friday, an Afghan official said a week-long reduction of violence period during which the Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents will refrain from operations and attacks would start by early Saturday.
"The seven-day violence reduction term starts tonight at 12:00 a.m. Saturday. The Afghan forces are ready to start the violence reduction term," Jawid Faisal, spokesman of Afghan National Security Council, told local media, adding that "the government promises to abide by all the rules of the seven-day violence reduction term to bring peace and stability to the country,"
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also called on Afghans to seize the opportunity from the upcoming peace deal between U.S. and the Taliban.
In the meantime, Afghan military officials had in the past said that the country's security forces reserves the right to respond to any possible violation by the militants during the one-week reduction of violence period.
The death toll of U.S. service members has surpassed 2,400 since the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001.
However, a small portion of U.S. troops will reportedly remain in Afghanistan after U.S.-Taliban peace deal for providing security for diplomatic mission in the militancy-hit county.
According to the statistics from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, 2018 was the deadliest year on record for the Afghan conflict, with a total of 10,993 civilian casualties, including 3,804 civilian deaths while over 2,810 civilians were killed and over 7,950 others injured in conflict-related incidents in 2019, according to official figures.
