http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/world/asia/afghanistan-peace-deal-hezb-i-islami.html 2016-09-22 14:41:15 Afghan Government Signs Draft Peace Deal With Insurgent Faction The faction, Hezb-i-Islami, agreed to cease hostilities in exchange for government recognition and support for removing sanctions against its leader. === KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan government signed a draft peace deal on Thursday with a small insurgent faction led by a warlord who has been designated a “global terrorist” by the United States. The faction, Hezb-i-Islami, whose name means Islamic Party, agreed to cease hostilities in exchange for government recognition of the group and support for the removal of United Nations and American sanctions against its contentious leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, according to the draft agreement. It was the first The draft agreement still has to be signed by President Ashraf Ghani and by Problems abound with the plan. With the coalition government already embroiled in Part of the deal calls for the government to pressure the United States to lift sanctions against Mr. Hekmatyar, but that may prove politically difficult. Although his insurgents have been relatively inactive, often sidelined by the Taliban and sometimes clashing with them as well, notable attacks have been attributed to his followers. One of the most notorious claimed by the group was a In 2003, the United States announced that it was making Mr. Hekmatyar a “ Hezb-i-Islami split after the Afghan government was established, with a political wing that disassociated itself from the insurgency. Many leading figures in that wing joined the government, and several were prominent during the presidency of Hamid Karzai. Few of them have explicitly repudiated Mr. Hekmatyar’s leadership of the party, and some were present at the signing of the draft agreement on Thursday. That could mean that if Mr. Hekmatyar does return, he could again be a significant force in