Islamabad: Taliban leaders say they will not negotiate with the Afghan government as long as Ashraf Ghani remains president, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Wednesday.
With peace peace stopped, violence in Afghanistan has increased side by side because the rebel groups make rapid territorial profits.
A US defense official said on Wednesday that Taliban fighters could take over Kabul in 90 days.
Khan said political settlement seemed difficult in current conditions.
“I tried to persuade the Taliban, three to four months back when the senior Taliban leadership came here,” Khan told foreign journalists at his home in Islamabad.
“The condition during Ashraf Ghani is there, we (Taliban) will not talk to the Afghan government,” Khan said, quoting the Taliban leaders as told him.
The peace talks between the Taliban, who viewed Ghani and the government as US dolls, and the Afghan Negotiator Team Kabul began last September but did not make substantive progress.
Representatives from a number of countries, including non-bound countries, are currently in the capital of Qatar Doha talking to both parties in the boost of the last trench for a ceasefire before August 31 – the day all foreign troops officially exited Afghanistan.
Pakistani Prime Minister said he felt the Afghan government now tried to convince the United States to return and intervene again.
“They’ve been here for 20 years.
What will they do now because they don’t do it for 20 years?” she says.
US troops continue to use air strikes to support Afghan forces against advanced Taliban, but it is still unclear whether the support will continue after August 31.
Khan said Pakistan had “made it very clear” that it did not want an American military base in Pakistan after the US forced out Afghanistan.