Afghanistan prepares for Taliban prisoner swap

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is getting ready to release 1,500 Taliban prisoners beginning this week.

That's according to a decree Ghani signed which Reuters saw on Tuesday (March 10).

It requires all released Taliban prisoners to provide, quote, "a written guarantee not to return to the battlefield."

In exchange, the Taliban has agreed to hand over a thousand Afghan troops.

This prisoner swap was the most contentious part of the U.S.-Taliban peace deal signed last month and one that Ghani had rejected last week.

The United States has already begun withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.

In return, the Taliban made pledges to dial down violence - like not cooperating with terrorists that target the U.S.

The United Nations has backed the push to end war, but at Tuesday Security Council meeting, the U.S. warned the Taliban to keep its promises.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) DEPUTY U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N. CHERITH NORMAN CHALET, SAYING:

"We acknowledge the Taliban have taken steps to stop attacks in cities and against major bases but more needs to be done and we urge them to also reduce violence against Afghan forces in the countryside, to give intra-Afghan negotiations and peace the opportunities to succeed."

Ghani's prisoner swap is supposed to help pave the way for talks with the Taliban and would roll out over 15 days as the talks get underway.

But a dispute over who leads the Afghan government may complicate the process.

While Ghani was sworn in for a second term on Monday (March 9), his political rival, former chief executive Abdullah Abdullah says he's the country's rightful leader.

He held his own, parallel inauguration separated only by a wall.

Both ceremonies were disrupted by a mortar attack on the presidential compound.