Monitoring Desk

KABUL: Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Thursday said that a continued blacklisting by the US of the Haqqani family is a “violation” of the Doha agreement.

“Latest US position regarding blacklist is a violation of Doha Agreement,” wrote Mujahid on Twitter, while issuing a statement on the matter.

The statement noted that Pentagon officials have remarked that some cabinet members of Afghanistan or the family members of Jalaluddin Haqqani “are on the US blacklists and still targets”.

“The Islamic Emirate considers this position a clear violation of the Doha Agreement which is neither in the interest of the United States nor Afghanistan,” said the statement.

According to the statement, the family of Haqqani “is part of [the] Islamic Emirate and does not have a separate name or organisational setup”.

“Similarly, in [the] Doha Agreement all officials of the Islamic Emirate without any exception were part of interaction with the US and should have been removed from the UN and US blacklists, a demand which still remains valid,” the statement added.

It termed statements by the US and other countries as “provocative” and accused them of trying to “meddle” in the internal affairs of Afghanistan. The statement added that Afghanistan “condemns” this in the “strongest terms”.

“Such remarks by US officials are a repetition of past failed experiments and such positions detrimental for America,” the statement said.

“We urge that these incorrect policies be immediately reversed through diplomatic interactions,” it underscored.