Taliban won’t take part in any conference until all troops withdrawn

The Taliban said on Wednesday that they will not participate in any conference on Afghanistan’s future until there has been a full withdrawal of all foreign forces.

Mohammad Naeem, the group’s Qatar-based spokesman announced the decision on his tweeter account.

“Until all foreign forces completely withdraw from our homeland, the Islamic Emirate will not participate in any conference that shall make decisions about Afghanistan,” Naeem tweeted.

Naeem added that: “The IEA performs its works with consultations according to the guidance of the noble religion of Islam and then adopts the stance whatsoever is decided in the result of the consultation.”

The decision comes after US media reported Tuesday that President Joe Biden will withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United. States.

According to the Washington Post, sources said Biden is expected to announce the decision on Wednesday to keep troops in the country beyond the May 1 deadline.

The Post reported that while the Taliban has vowed to renew attacks on U.S. and NATO personnel if foreign troops are not out by the deadline, it is not clear if the militants will follow through with those threats given Biden’s plan for a phased withdrawal between now and September.

Britain will also withdraw nearly all its troops from Afghanistan following the U.S. plan to withdraw its troops by Sept. 11, 2021, The Times reported on Tuesday.

Biden’s decision comes after a review of the US-Taliban agreement signed in February last year in Doha which calls for troops to be withdrawn by May 1.