Taliban has shown no will for peace, Mohib says

KABUL (TOLOnews): National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib at a press briefing said the Taliban has does not have the authority for negotiations and that group so far has shown no desire for peace and is seeking to seize absolute power.

Mohib reiterated that the government leaders are fully prepared to render sacrifice for peace if real peace is established in the country.

The national security adviser said the Taliban has doubled the scale of violence in the country compared to a year before, but the group in a statement on Saturday insisted that they did not announce their so-called summer offensive last year as part of their commitments in the February 2020 agreement.

“Their leaders want to seize absolute power. Their backers want the destruction of Afghanistan,” Mohib said, referring to the Taliban.

Mohib said that neighbors apparently supports peace in Afghanistan but in practice, it is supporting the Taliban’s violence.

“They invited their commanders in their homes to prepare for the summer offensive,” he said.

The remarks come amid growing uncertainty over peace talks with the Taliban, a drumbeat of targeted killings and the looming withdrawal of US troops from the country.

The Taliban however has denied any involvement in targeted killings. But has vowed to resume fighting if the US forces do not leave the country in May as agreed in the Doha agreement. “The Taliban is responsible for 98 or 99 percent of incidents that are happening around,” said Ahmad Zia Saraj, head of the National Directorate of Security.

There are rumors that the Taliban has set the release of 7,000 of their prisoners by the Afghan government as a pre-condition to resume the second round of the negotiations.

But the national security adviser said the release of more Taliban inmates will not be in support of reducing violence.

“We did not see anything positive from the release of the Taliban except the increase in violence and the killing of Afghans,” Mohib said.

However, the Taliban in their statement accused the Afghan government of prolonging the violence and said they have remained firm to all their commitments they made in the Doha agreement.

Second Vice President Sarwar Danesh on Friday said the US Special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad once had warned that the security situation in the country will worsen if the Afghan government does not release 400 notorious Taliban inmates.