While the Biden Administration surprised many with its peace proposal in Afghanistan, it didn’t necessarily sell the idea on anybody. Some Afghan officials are interested, others aren’t, and the Taliban is just skeptical about the whole thing.
Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naim said that the group’s concern is that the interim government is not going to be able to deal with the country’s problems, and that they need a strong independent government, and a post-war independent government would just be too weak.
That’s a common concern, to be sure, and is often a problem when a post-war situation leads to interim power-sharing for a new election. Still, this is an inevitable way to dig out of an unresolvable war.
The Taliban’s main goal is to get the US out of the country, and while most of the existing government wants to keep the US on the ground, Interior Minister Masood Andarabi downplayed the concerns, saying he believes the Afghan military can hold its own territory without the US.
“Interior Minister Masood Andarabi downplayed the concerns, saying he believes the Afghan military can hold its own territory without the US.”
Was that a joke?
Bill Roggio of FDD expands on Taliban being “skeptical” including “The Taliban has been very clear that elections are against Islam.”
Latest U.S. proposal for ending Afghan conflict runs counter to Taliban beliefs