Sirajuddin Haqqani, the acting interior minister of the Afghan Taliban, has said that the Taliban regime wanted “good relations” with the United States and the rest of the global community.
The Taliban leader made these remarks during an interview on CNN. In response to a question on whether the Afghan government considered the US an enemy, he said the Taliban did not consider the US as an “enemy” and they were committed to the Doha accord.
“I would like to make a small clarification. The period of the last 20 years was a situation of defensive fighting and war. When the agreement was made in Doha, we decided that we would not be talking about this. In the future we would like to have good relations with the United States and the international community,” he said. According to the Taliban minister, who has a $10 million bounty on his head by the US government, Kabul wanted ties with the US based on principles and diplomatic norms, adding that “based on their [US] conduct, the Afghans have reservations about their intentions”.