Taliban accuse US of stopping Afghan peace talks

KABUL: The Taliban have expressed their resentment over Washington over social media, alleging that the United States has stopped talks on withdrawal, which would end the 18-year war in Afghanistan.

Washington and the Taliban are still revolving around a possible deal that will see US forces begin to leave Afghanistan in lieu of bail.

However, there seems to have been little progress in reaching an agreement in recent weeks that has allowed the Taliban to accuse the White House and, according to them, the United States is increasing its list of demands for a deal.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a tweet that the Taliban had the intention and ability to compromise.

He said that Donald Trump's tweets, numerous US demands and conflicts between US and Kabul officials have damaged the negotiation process. Secretary Pompeo should refrain from being charged. '.

These Taliban remarks came at a time when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said one day earlier that the Taliban should show their intentions and abilities to reduce violence so that they could be compromised during a meeting with Central Asian officials in Uzbekistan.

Taliban sources told AFP last month that they had offered a short 7- to a 10-day ceasefire to reach an agreement, but no announcement was made regarding the offer.

The tweet came at a time when US ambassador to the Taliban, Zalmay Khalilzad, who led the Taliban talks, had visited Pakistan and Afghanistan, launching new diplomacy, and had informed the officials of the two countries about the status of the talks.

In recent weeks, the United States has been quiet about negotiations, while the Taliban have emphasized that they want to move forward by reducing the fighting.

Talks between the US and the Taliban have been underway for the past one year, and those talks were close to fruitful in September 2019, but US President Donald Trump justified the Taliban's violence and called it "dead."

Later in the month of December, talks were resumed in Qatar, which was halted again following the recent attack near the US base in Afghanistan.

Where talks between the two sides are underway, violent attacks in the country have also increased.

According to the US government watchdog report, the number of skirmishes crossed record levels in the last three months of 2019