MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th February, 2019) The withdrawal of foreign troops will help Afghanistan to eliminate the threat of terrorist groups like the Islamic State (IS, outlawed in Russia), the spokesman for the Taliban political office in Qatar said Wednesday.
"In Afghanistan some of the thieves and kidnappers and some militias, they have renamed themselves as Daesh [IS in Arabic] ... We think when there are no foreign forces in Afghanistan, this will not be a threat," Suhail Shaheen told reporters at the intra-Afghan talks in Moscow.
According to Shaheen, US military presence is a "hurdle in the way of peace in Afghanistan."
Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, a representative of the Taliban group, said that US troops still present in Afghanistan should withdraw from the country as soon as possible, but no timeline had yet been fixed for the pullout.
"We are in negotiations with the American side and we are trying that they should go out as soon as possible. The timeline is not fixed and it is not agreed so far," Stanikzai told reporters.
According to Fawzia Koofi, a member of the Afghan parliament, the parties to the talks agreed in the final declaration to ensure that the Afghanistan's future government would be responsible for facilitating the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country.
"The article [in the declaration] is that the future government will facilitate the withdrawal. It is not absolute withdrawal," Koofi said.
The intra-Afghan talks, initiated by the Afghan diaspora in Russia, were held in Moscow on February 5-6. They brought together a number of Afghan politicians, representatives of Afghan diaspora in different countries and a Taliban delegation.
