PESHAWAR: In a setback to peace deal, Afghan Taliban reject the Afghanistangovernment negotiations team.
The Afghan Taliban on Saturday said they had rejected a negotiation teamconstituted by the Afghan government for the long-awaited “intra-Afghandialogue” with Taliban.
“We had committed in the peace accord reached with the US on February 29 inDoha that we would join the intra Afghan dialogue but made it clear thatall Afghan factions would participate in the peace process,” said a Talibanleader based in Doha.
Pleading anonymity, he said last week they held “fruitful” talks with USSecretary of State Mike Pompeo and Zalmay Khalilzad in Doha in which theymade it clear again that they (Taliban) were willing to initiate theintra-Afghan dialogue but only if all Afghan factions are involved in thepeace process.
“Today we were surprised when came to know about the team constituted bythe Afghan government. It would be a total negation of our earlier stanceif we started talks with the Afghan government now, which obviously notpossible,” said the Taliban leader.
He said their top leadership had decided not to sit with the negotiationteam constituted by the Afghan government. “And we rejected the team formedby the Afghan government.
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There should be a broad based team and needed to be comprised all Afghanfactions,” he said.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told The News that they had rejectedthe Afghan team announced for negotiation with Taliban. “As we statedseveral times in the past, we would never talk to the Afghan government.
And today the Afghan government announced it’s team for the intra Afghandialogue, there is no way we would talk to them,” said the Talibanspokesman.
