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Taliban says Doha agreement is sole platform for negotiation 

March 15, 2021 at 6:01 pm

US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad (L) and Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (R) shake hands after signing the peace agreement between US, Taliban, in Doha, Qatar on 29 February 2020. [Fatih Aktaş – Anadolu Agency]

The spokesman of the Taliban’s political office, Mohammad Naim, stressed that the Doha agreement remains the only ground to strengthen the negotiation track between the parties to the Afghan peace process.

Naim said: “The new tracks will not affect the agreement, but can accelerate and stimulate it. The movement wants radical solutions to the fundamental problems in Afghanistan.”

In an interview with Al Jazeera Net yesterday, Naim referred to the presence of hurdles in implementing some of the provisions stipulated by the Doha agreement, which concern parties other than Taliban.

He explained that the peace talks with the Kabul government delegation had made some progress in terms of agreeing on frameworks for holding meetings to discuss various issues.

Regarding the US proposals to form a coalition or interim government in Afghanistan, of which the Taliban would be a party, Naim asserted: “Such proposals will not achieve the aspired objectives and will not solve deep problems, but will rather complicate the matter. The Afghan interior cannot be judged on previous experiences around the world.”

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Last week, the US denied that it had taken any decision to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan before the 1 May deadline which was previously agreed upon.

Under Qatari mediation, historic peace talks were launched in Doha on 12 September between the Afghan government and Taliban, with US support, with the aim of ending 42 years of armed conflict in Afghanistan.

Earlier, Qatar mediated negotiations between Washington and Taliban, which led to the signing of a landmark agreement at the end of February 2020 for a gradual US withdrawal from Afghanistan and a prisoner swap deal.

Afghanistan has been witnessing a war since 2001, when an international military coalition led by Washington toppled the Taliban regime that held ties at the time with Al-Qaeda, which claimed responsibility for 11 September attacks in the United States the same year.

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