US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Tuesday the Taliban were not living up to their commitments under an agreement signed in February.
“I don’t think they are,” Esper said in a press conference when asked if the Taliban were living up to their commitments.
He said that both the Afghan government and the Taliban “need to come together and make progress on the terms that (are) laid out.”
Esper said the “best thing the Taliban could do right now is to live up to an agreement in reduction of violence where we were just prior to signing the documents.”
Esper said that the Afghan peace process has not moved as fast as expected.
He said that the political leadership of Afghanistan “needs to come together and find out a formula with which they can work together.”
“Based on that, they can get their negotiating team to sit down and perform negotiations. We are making progress,” Esper said.
He said that the US focus was to getting the political leadership in Afghanistan together to form negotiating team.
He reiterated that the only way the Afghan conflict is settled is through a political agreement.
The Taliban have mounted more than 4,500 attacks in the 45 days since signing a deal with US, according to a Reuters report.
