Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the Islamists' first press conference that he wanted to assure the global community that Afghan soil would pose no threat to them.

The questions at the appearance in Kabul on Tuesday evening focused on the domestic political situation and what the takeover of power by the Taliban means for women, for example.

But the question of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan was also raised.

Mujahid tried to dispel concerns.

"Foreign fighters" are not allowed to act against other countries from Afghanistan.

He added: "We don't want to have a problem with the international community."

Christian Meier

Editor in politics.

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The speaker's sentences touch a sore point of the Taliban as well as the international community, especially America.

For despite all the brutality of the Taliban regime in the 1990s, the rule of the Islamists was not the reason for the US-led intervention in October 2001.

The immediate goal after the devastating 9/11 attacks had been to put al-Qaeda in its place.

The top priority for Washington was the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden, the Saudi leader of the Islamist terrorist organization.

Al-Qaeda is still active

However, the Taliban, which has hosted the al-Qaeda leadership since 1996, did not want to hand over bin Laden without evidence. Three quarters of a year earlier they had already ignored an ultimatum from the United Nations Security Council to extradite it. After another ultimatum by American President George W. Bush expired, the US attacked and drove the Taliban out of Kabul alongside the Northern Alliance. Bin Laden, who managed to escape, was killed almost ten years later in a commando operation in Pakistan. Al-Qaeda’s star has also sunk since then, and other groups such as the “Islamic State” (IS) have attracted more attention over the past decade. But the terrorist organization is still active - and now that the Taliban are back in power, the question arises again,how they deal with al-Qaeda.

For the American government in particular, the question of what capacities al-Qaeda still has in Afghanistan has played a major role over the years. In addition to its NATO engagement, the USA had its own mission in Afghanistan to take action against al-Qaeda, IS and other terrorist groups. The importance of the fight against terrorism was made clear by President Joe Biden in his address on Monday when he said that despite recent developments, he did not regret his decision to withdraw. America went to war twenty years ago with “clear goals”: ​​“To seize those who attacked us on September 11, 2001, and to ensure that Al-Qaeda can no longer use Afghanistan as a base to attack us. We did it. "