KABUL, Afghanistan: The new Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour has asked the Afghan government to cancel its security deal with the United States if Kabul wants peace to prevail in the war-torn country.
Mullah Mansour also demanded the withdrawal of all US-led foreign troops from Afghanistan which would eventually bring the war to an end in the South Asian country.
“If the Kabul administration wants to end the war and establish peace in the country, it is possible through ending the occupation and revoking all military and security treaties with the invaders,” Mansour said in a message on the occasion of upcoming Muslim festival Eidul Azha.
Last year, the Upper House of Afghan Parliament ratified the controversial Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with the United States, according to which about 10,000 US troops would stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014 when the US-led combat mission ended.
The House also approved the NATO Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) which likewise empowered the US-led military alliance to keep troops in the war-torn nation in the next year.
In his message posted on the Afghan Taliban’s website, Mullah Mansour also called for an “intra-Afghan” solution to the problems in Afghanistan, saying the chaotic situation can come to end “if the country is not under occupation.”
“Any foreign pressure under the pretext of resolving the Afghan problem is not going to resolve the problem but will rather create other problems,” he added.
