KABUL – Afghan Taliban on Saturday warned of dire consequences if the United States fails to pull out troops from war-battered country as scheduled.
If the May 1 deadline was not met, the Taliban would be “compelled to … continue its Jihad and armed struggle against foreign forces to liberate its country”, the group said in a statement on Friday.
The armed group’s threat followed comments by US President Joe Biden, who on Thursday said it would be hard to withdraw the last US troops by the deadline, which was agreed with Washington last year.
The fighter group’s warning came at moment when government is preparing to attend upcoming peace conference in Turkey early next month, Afghanistan’s National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib told reporters in Kabul.
Meanwhile, Senior Presidential Adviser Waheed Omar said Afghan President Muhammad Ashraf Ghani would present an early election plan at Istanbul conference and will put forward a proposed roadmap for peace in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, US Special Envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad in in Turkey to encourage Afghan parties to accelerate negotiations to end conflict in the war-torn country.
Under the February 2020 deal negotiated by Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump’s administration, the US promised to withdraw all 2,500 US troops left in Afghanistan.
In return, the Taliban pledged to renounce violence, prevent groups such as al-Qaeda from using Afghanistan as a base from which to attack US and allied targets and enter into intra-Afghan peace talks.
