Moscow : The United States promised Taliban to remove half of its troops from Afghanistan by the end of April, an official from Taliban’s political office in Doha told reporters here on Wednesday.
“Yes, the Americans told us that half of their troops will be withdrawn starting the beginning of February until the end of April,” Sputnik quoted Abdul Salam Hanafi, a part of the Taliban delegation in Moscow for ‘intra-Afghan talks’ as saying.
The schedule of the withdrawal would be discussed in future US-Taliban talks, Hanafi added.
“Today all Afghans say we do not need foreign forces in Afghanistan…The conference is giving a strong message for withdrawing occupation forces from Afghanistan,” he further said.
Hanafi, who is also the deputy head of Taliban’s political office in Doha, indicated that the Taliban believed that future governments in Afghanistan would be “Islamic” as a secular government is “impossible”.
This comes after the US and Taliban agreed in principle to chalk out a framework for a deal that could end the 17-year old conflict in Afghanistan, during the six-day long talks in Doha in January.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]