ISLAMABAD – The goal of the Taliban envoys is not to help revive talks withthe United States but rather to gauge regional support for forcing thewithdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, a high-ranking member of themovement said.
As the future of talks between the United States and Taliban remainsuncertain, the organisation has recently dispatched a delegation to Russiato discuss the possible withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, whilealso planning similar visits to China, Iran and certain Central Asianstates, Sputnik has reported.
“The purpose of these visits is to inform leaders of these countries aboutthe peace talks and President Trump’s decision to call off the peaceprocess at a time when both sides had resolved all outstanding issues andwere about to sign a peace agreement”, a senior Taliban leader in Qatarsaid as quoted by Reuters.
The Taliban leader also remarked that the visits’ goal was not to revivetalks with the US but rather to gauge the level of “regional support” forforcing Washington to pull its troops out of Afghanistan.
The news comes after US President Donald Trump cancelled secret talkslinkwithAfghan President Ashraf Ghani and Taliban leaders at Camp David, followinga car bomb attack in Kabul which claimed the life of a US serviceman.
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“When I heard very simply that they killed one of our soldiers and 12 otherinnocent people, I said there’s no way I’m meeting on that basis. There’sno way I’m meeting. They did a mistake,” Trump told media in the wake ofthe attack.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that”the complete end to foreign military presence is an inalienable conditionof durable peace in Afghanistan.”
