In a series of tweets posted on Tuesday, March 17, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad said, “we expect the Taliban to deliver on their commitments.”
Mr. Khalilzad welcomed Taliban’s denouncement of the Islamic State –Khurasan Province or Daesh.
“The fulfillment of our commitments within the agreement will depend on the Taliban delivering on their commitments,” he noted, adding that the Taliban statement on Daesh and their recent operation against terrorists in Kunar are positive steps.
Though the militant group have made no mention of al-Qaida in their statement, issued on Sunday, March 15, Mr. Khalilzad has said that the Taliban’s statement and their commitment to stop Daesh mirror the group’s public commitments in the US-Taliban agreement against Al Qaeda and all other groups that threaten the US or its allies.
This comes after Al-Qaeda’s general command praised the Taliban’s what the group described the US-Taliban peace deal as “great victory” over America and its allies in Afghanistan in a statement issued after the deal was signed, according to the Long War Journal.
But the Taliban have neither welcomed nor reacted against Al-Qaeda’s new statement—a reaction highly required by the US-Taliban peace deal.
The peace deal signed between the US and the Taliban expects the Taliban militants to cut ties with terrorist networks, including al-Qaeda, and not allow terrorist outfits to threaten interests of the US and its allies from Afghan soil.
