KABUL, March 16: The Taliban rejected reports on Monday its leader Mullah Omar was willing to hold peace talks aimed at ending the war in Afghanistan, saying it would continue attacks until all foreign forces withdrew from the country.

“If you wait for 3,000 years, our position is that the Taliban will not enter into any kind of talks in the presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan,” Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told the Pakistan-based AIP news agency on Monday.

More than seven years after US-led and Afghan forces removed the Taliban from power, violence in Afghanistan is at its highest levels with Taliban-led insurgents launching attacks on foreign and Afghan forces.

Ahmadi’s comments came a day after Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper reported Omar had given his approval for and had sent representatives to attend Saudi-sponsored peace talks.

Omar had given a “green light” for talks to go ahead, the Times quoted a former friend of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Anas, as saying. But Taliban spokesman Ahmadi rejected the claims.

“These reports are baseless. Our position remains unchanged. We will conduct jihad and continue resistance as long as foreign forces are present in Afghanistan,” Ahmadi told AIP.—Reuters
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