Taliban announced on Monday night that the group is ready for talks with the United States and called on US officials “to talk directly to the Political Office of Islamic Emirate (in Qatar) regarding a peaceful solution to the Afghan quandary.”
Referring to the US Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia Alice Wells’ recent statement that the US has kept the doors of dialogue open for the Taliban, the group said “it would help in finding a solution if America accepts the legitimate demands of the Afghan people and forward its own concerns and requests for discussion to the Islamic Emirate through a peaceful channel.”
The Taliban also said in the statement that the group made it clear to the US in its recent letter that “war is not our choice, rather it has been imposed upon us. For ending the occupation, we want a peaceful resolution to the Afghan issue.”
The statement noted that “it must now be established by America and her allies that the Afghan issue cannot be solved militarily.
“America must henceforth focus on a peaceful strategy for Afghanistan instead of war. Military strategies which have repeatedly been tested in Afghanistan over the past seventeen years will only intensify and prolong the war. And this is not in the interest of anyone.”
The statement comes days after Kabul started discussions with the Qatar government to close the Taliban’s office in Doha as it has had no positive consequence in terms of facilitating the peace talks with the group in Afghanistan.
There is no need to keep the office open, said Mohammad Hanif Atmar, the National Security Advisor to President Ashraf Ghani, last week.
He made the same remarks in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, a daily newspaper in the Middle East as well.
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