Afghan Taliban members inspect the site of an explosion at a mosque in Kunduz on Oct. 8. Photo: Ajmal Kakar/Xinhua via Getty Images
The Taliban said on Saturday it will not work with the U.S. to contain extremist groups in Afghanistan, AP reports.
Why it matters: The remarks come as a U.S. delegation meets on Saturday and Sunday with senior Taliban representatives in Doha, Qatar.
- This is the first in-person meeting at a senior level since the Taliban reclaimed Afghanistan, and reining in extremist groups will be a key issue on the table.
Driving the news: Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told AP that there would be no cooperation with the U.S. in quelling the increasingly active Islamic State group affiliate in Afghanistan, per AP.
- "We are able to tackle Daesh independently," Shaheen said, using another term for ISIS.
- The Islamic State is increasingly active in Afghanistan, and on Friday, a suicide bombing inside a Shiite mosque in northern Afghanistan killed more than 45. ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the blast.
The big picture: In the Feb. 29, 2020 agreement signed between the U.S. and Taliban, the insurgents agreed to prevent terror groups from filling the void as the U.S. began a full withdrawal.
- Ahead of the meetings over the weekend in Qatar, a spokesperson for the State Department told Axios that the U.S. intended to push the leaders to honor their commitment not to let al-Qaeda or other extremists "use Afghan soil to threaten the security of the United States or its allies."
- The U.S. delegation will include officials from the government's intelligence community, State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.