Afghan govt powerless to resolve big issues: Taliban

Monitoring Desk

KABUL: In a quick reaction to Afghan government’s High Peace Council’s remarks that they were ready to hold talks with Taliban under any mechanism, the Taliban on Thursday said the US was their real opponent.

“Our rival that we fight with is Americans and the real issue is the presence of US occupation. They have recruited the Kabul administration. Unless the problem is resolved with the US, the Kabul administration has no power and ability to solve the issues being confronted by our nation,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told media.

The HPC chairman Muhammad Karim Khalili and secretary Muhammad Akram Khpalwak told a presser in Kabul yesterday that they were agree to Taliban’s choice of mechanism or proposal for peace talks including the opening of office in Kabul.

Denying any contact with the HPC, Mujahid said neither on individual nor collective basis they had any contact with the HPC. Though there are also speculations that negotiations were underway for opening Taliban office in Indonesia, the Taliban spokesman said, “Our political office is operational in Doha, its members are living in different countries and carrying forward their stance when needed.”

About the HPC announcement that a delegation of Indonesian clerics would visit Kabul and condemn the Afghan war, he said they did not think if those were really the ulemas. He said the Kabul government had also spread such speculations sometimes ago that the ulema of Saudi Arabia and some other countries would condemn the Afghan war but none of them did so. He advised the ulemas of the Muslim world including Indonesia not to be deceived and adopt a responsible and Islamic stance on the issues.