The Afghan peace talks have been faced with a deadlock over the last few months. Violence has remained high in the country in the last two months following the start of the withdrawal of US and coalition forces from Afghanistan. In this interview, TOLOnews’ Yaser Abrar speaks to Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, about a wide range of issues from ongoing conflicts, to the peace process and other current topics. […]
Mr. Mujahid, hello and welcome to the program.
Mujahid: Hello to you and to your listeners and readers and watchers. Thank you for the opportunity.
TOLOnews: You captured the centers of 114 districts in two months. The Pentagon says that it questions your sincerity in the peace process. What is your response?
Mujahid: In the name of Allah… I should say that 125 districts have been captured in two months and are under our control. This progress has not been by force or through war. You are aware that most of them were through the leaving of Kabul administration soldiers’ who moved to quit fighting and join us and we came closer to each other. We can say that in one or one-and-a-half months we had the least casualties, same was for the Kabul administration soldiers because there wasn’t a need for war and all areas were captured automatically and they joined us. This does not mean that it will call into question our will because you are aware that it is 16 months that we had reduced our operations for political matters and we had reduced our operations to 25%, which means that they were reduced by 75%. But despite that, the peace and negotiations process was moving forward slowly and it is slow right now, too; therefore, we could not sit with the other side. Läs intervjun