Taliban reject direct talks with Afghan government

KABUL: The Taliban said on Sunday they will not hold direct talks with Afghan government and rejected a statement from a senior minister about plans to hold the such as meeting within the next two weeks, a senior Taliban official said.

“Intra-Afghan talks will start only after a foreign force withdrawal is announced,” said Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Qatar.

On Saturday, Abdul Salam Rahimi, the state minister for peace affairs, said the government would be represented by a 15-member delegation during direct talks with the Taliban “in the coming two weeks”.

Earlier this week, the Afghan Taliban in a statement had expressed desire to visit Pakistan if the country sent them an invitation.

The Afghan Taliban had said that if they are invited they would surely visit Pakistan and would like to meet the Prime Minister of the country, Imran Khan.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had expressed his wish to meet the Afghan Taliban during his recently concluded United States trip.

Khan had said during an interview that he would urge the Afghan Taliban to hold a dialogue with the Kabul government, to solve their disputes amicably.