Information and Culture Minister in the caretaker Afghan government Khairullah Khairkhwa has urged Washington to remove members of the radical Taliban from the terrorist list
“Americans should reconsider their views on the inclusion of Taliban representatives on terrorist lists. […] They are using the presence of our functionaries on these lists as a tool to pressure the [interim] government of Afghanistan. We urge them to stick to diplomatic methods because, in my opinion, it will not do them any good in the future anyway”, – Hairhwa told Al Jazeera.
The minister added that if the United States does not remove the Taliban from the terrorist list, “it will come back to them because they will not keep their promises to the Taliban.”
It should be recalled that a number of representatives of the provisional government in Afghanistan, which was formed by members of the radical Taliban, are under international sanctions or are listed as terrorists in some countries. In particular, the head of the cabinet, Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund, was placed on the UN sanctions list in 2001. In addition, several members of the Taliban have served sentences in the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, including Hairhwa.