KABUL: Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen has asserted that the insurgents want to take control of Afghanistan “in the next few days”, as their fighters encircled the capital.
“In next few days, we want a peaceful transfer,” Suhail Shaheen, based in Qatar as part of the group’s negotiating team, told the English news channel BBC today (Sunday).
Shaheen laid out the policies of the Taliban ahead of an expected power transfer that would re-install the group two decades after US-led forces toppled them in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“We want an inclusive Islamic government that means all Afghans will be part of that government,” Shaheen said, adding, “We will see that in the future as the peaceful transfer is taking place.”
He further said that foreign embassies and workers would not be targeted by the group’s fighters and they should remain in the country. “There will be no risk to diplomats, NGOs, to anyone. All should continue their work as they were continuing in the past,” he added.
Rebuffing fears the country would be plunged back to the dark days of the group’s ultra-conservative version of Islamic law, Shaheen said that the Taliban would instead seek a “new chapter” of tolerance.
“We want to work with any Afghan, we want to open a new chapter of peace, tolerance, peaceful coexistence and national unity for the country and for the people of Afghanistan,” he added.
The Doha-based spokesman said the group would also review its relationship with the United States. “Our relationship was in the past,” he said. “In future, if it will touch our agenda no more, it will be a new chapter of cooperation.”
Afghan govt delegation to travel to Doha ‘soon’
Meanwhile, the CNN reported that a high-level Afghan government delegation will travel to Doha “soon” for talks with the Taliban.
“The situation is changing by the minute but we could expect an Afghan government delegation that has more power and authority to travel to Doha soon,” a source privy to the intra-Afghan negotiations told CNN.
