KABUL: Taliban Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has rejected any extension in the August 31 deadline, the Biden administration set for complete withdrawal of US and other international forces from Afghanistan.
Addressing a crowded press conference in Kabul today (Tuesday), the spokesman said Taliban would accept no extensions to the deadline. He said life was returning to normal in the country but chaos at the airport remained a problem.
The spokesman also urged the United States not to encourage the doctors, engineers, and “educated elite” from leaving their homeland, saying they are “not in favour” of such a move.
The group said Americans were taking “Afghan experts” such as engineers out of the country. “They have planes, they have the airport, they should get their citizens and contractors out of here,” said Mujahid. “We need their expertise,” he said, adding that once security was re-established, women would be able to return to work as normal.
He also denied reports that Taliban patrols were conducting house to house searches to find targets for reprisals, assuring that there would be no revenge or reprisal actions by Taliban against anyone. “We have forgotten everything in the past,” he added.
Mujahid repeated that the Taliban wanted good diplomatic relations with other countries and wanted foreign embassies to remain open. He said all that the ethnic groups and communities in Afghanistan were equal and would work unitedly for the progress and development of their motherland.
In response to another question, Mujahid said he “cannot confirm” if Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar met CIA chief William Burns.
He also said the movement wanted dialogue to resolve the situation in the province of Panjshir, where forces loyal to Ahmad Massoud, son of the former anti-Soviet commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, had gathered.
