Doha Agreement (US–Taliban)

The Doha Agreement, formally titled the "Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan," was signed on 29 February 2020 in Doha, Qatar, between the United States and the Taliban (which the document refers to as the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban"). US Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad signed for Washington; Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar signed for the Taliban. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attended as witness.

The accord rested on four interconnected parts:

• Guarantees by the Taliban that Afghan soil would not be used by al-Qaeda or other groups to threaten the US or its allies.
• A timetable for the withdrawal of all US and coalition forces within 14 months, with an initial drawdown to roughly 8,600 US troops within 135 days.
• The launch of intra-Afghan negotiations between the Taliban and Afghan stakeholders, scheduled to begin on 10 March 2020.
• A permanent and comprehensive ceasefire as a topic for those intra-Afghan talks.

A confidential annex reportedly covered prisoner exchanges and specific security commitments. The agreement also called for the release of up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government — which was not a signatory and initially resisted the swap.

Critics argued the deal sidelined the Republic of Afghanistan led by President Ashraf Ghani and gave the Taliban legitimacy without enforceable verification mechanisms. The Biden administration, after a brief review, largely maintained the withdrawal framework, extending the deadline to 31 August 2021. The Taliban entered Kabul on 15 August 2021, before the withdrawal was complete, prompting debate over whether the Doha framework caused or merely accelerated the collapse of the Islamic Republic. A 2023 State Department After Action Review and a SIGAR report both examined the agreement's implementation failures.