It adheres to its agreement with Washington and warns NATO .. ​​Taliban: The continuation of the war is not in anyone's interest

The Taliban warned the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) against seeking to "continue the war" in Afghanistan, but confirmed its commitment to what was reached with the US side in the Doha Agreement.

These statements came ahead of a videoconference scheduled for February 17th, during which the defense ministers of the alliance will discuss the fate of the survival of the NATO mission, which has a number of 10,000 soldiers.

"Our message to the next ministerial meeting of NATO is that the continuation of the occupation and war is neither in your interest nor in the interest of your people and our people," the Taliban said in a statement.

And she added, "Whoever seeks to extend wars and occupation will be responsible for it exactly as in the past two decades."

Afghanistan has recently witnessed an escalation of violence, amid stalled peace talks between the Afghan parties.

The negotiations did not achieve any breakthrough, at a time when the Taliban carried out attacks on an almost daily basis targeting government forces in internal areas.

Violence has increased in the capital, Kabul in particular, as prominent Afghans, including journalists, activists, judges and politicians, have been targeted.

Committed to the Doha Agreement

For his part, Muhammad Naim, a spokesman for the political bureau, a member of the Taliban negotiation delegation, said that the recent escalation in Afghanistan was caused by the continuous bombing by Afghan forces of the movement’s personnel, cities and villages.

Naim indicated in an interview with Al-Jazeera that the movement is committed to what has been reached with the American side in Doha, but has not yet reached an agreement with the Afghan government to stop the attacks.

Regarding the possibility of the US President Joe Biden’s administration reviewing the agreement, the spokesman said that the agreement was reached after two years of serious and difficult negotiations, and it is in everyone’s interest to abide by it, and it is not in the interest of any of the parties to violate it.

Naeem expressed his confidence in the ability of Afghans to reach a solution to their internal disputes if the foreign forces, who held him responsible for the war in the country, withdrew.

Cut down on forces

And last year, the administration of former US President Donald Trump struck a deal with the Taliban under which the United States agreed to leave Afghanistan for foreign forces by next May if violence decreased and peace talks with the Kabul government progressed.

The administration of the new president, Joe Biden, announced that it was reviewing the agreement, but the Department of Defense (Pentagon) accused the movement of not fulfilling the promises it made.

In turn, the Taliban accused the United States of violating the peace agreement, and insisted that it would continue "fighting and jihad" if foreign forces did not leave by next May.

Shortly before the end of his term, Trump reduced the number of US forces in Afghanistan to just 2,500, the lowest level since the start of the war in 2001.