“The issue was finally resolved by signing an agreement between the United States and the Taliban. We insist that the decision taken in Doha be put into practice,” a Taliban official told a news conference in Moscow.
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“Naturally, if this is not implemented, we will once again face certain problems that will effectively overturn the Doha agreement,” he added.
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U.S. media have previously reported, citing sources, that U.S. President Joe Biden is considering several options for how long U.S. troops could stay in Afghanistan, and that one of those options is to keep troops there until November.
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In an interview on Wednesday, Biden warned that it would be difficult to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 1, as provided for in the US agreement with the Afghan Taliban, concluded during Donald Trump’s presidency.
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The Taliban insurgents have largely kept their promise not to attack US or other foreign troops since the deal was reached in February last year, but they have said the deadline for the withdrawal of US forces cannot be changed.
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“It can happen, but it’s hard,” Biden said in a television interview when asked about the withdrawal of U.S. forces by May 1. “I’m in the process of making that decision.”
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Biden also directly criticized Trump’s Afghanistan policy, saying the agreement reached under the auspices of the then president “was not a very negotiated deal.”
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“The fact that there was no smooth transition from Trump’s presidency to my presidency (…) cost me time and consequences. This is one of the problems we are talking about now, in Afghan terms,” Biden added.
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The agreement in Qatar stipulates that the United States will withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan by May 1, while the Taliban agreed to peace talks with the administration of Afghan President Ashraf Ghana and promised to prevent the use of their territory by “terrorists”.
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