Taliban Refuses To Participate In Talks

The Taliban will not take part in peace talks with the government brokered by a four-way group and has restated its preconditions for holding dialogue.

Following a meeting of the so-called Quadrilateral Coordination Group – comprising representatives of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, and the US – in Kabul last month, officials had expected direct peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

However, a Taliban statement yesterday confirmed the no-show. “We want to repeat our stance once again that until the occupation of foreign troops ends, until Taliban names are removed from international blacklists and until our detainees are released, talks will yield no results,” the statement said.

We unequivocally state that the esteemed leader of Islamic Emirate [Taliban] has not authorised anyone to participate in this meeting and neither has the Leadership Council of Islamic Emirate decided to partake in it.”