The US military announced the implementation of air strikes against the Taliban after its fighters launched an attack on Afghan forces in Kandahar province, and for its part, the movement accused Washington of violating the Doha Agreement, while a government official said that the government and the Taliban oppose the proposal to form a transitional government.
The spokesman for the US forces in Afghanistan, Sonny Legg, said in a tweet on Twitter that his country's forces had carried out air strikes during the past forty-eight hours, targeting Taliban fighters, after they launched an attack on Afghan forces' positions in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan.
On the other hand, the Taliban spokesman accused the US forces of violating the Doha Agreement after launching the raids, killing a number of the movement’s fighters.
The Taliban spokesman called on the US side to abide by the Doha Agreement, stressing that if the Americans returned to bomb the movement’s sites, it would exercise its right to defend itself and take similar measures against foreign forces in Afghanistan, he said.
On the other hand, Omar Dawudzi, an advisor to the Afghan president, said that the Taliban are opposed to participating in a transitional government, and that there are foreign parties who want a government that does not have any constitutional legitimacy, as he put it.
The Afghan President’s advisor added that the government side does not see a justification for forming a transitional government, and considers that the best option is early presidential elections.
On the other hand, the Russian envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, explained to Al-Jazeera that the goal of the Moscow meeting scheduled for next Thursday is not to compete with the Doha negotiations, but rather to make the negotiations that have reached a "dead end."
For its part, the Afghan Foreign Ministry confirmed yesterday that conducting peace negotiations (on Afghanistan) in Russia and Turkey is a continuation and complement to the Doha negotiations.