Afghanistan will never be used against any other country: Taliban tells US chief negotiator

The Afghan Taliban has assured US' chief negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad that Aghanistan would never be used against any other country in future, according to a media report here.

This assurance was given by the Taliban to Khalilzad in Doha when the two sides resumed talks to find a resolution to the Afghan problem, The News International daily reported.

The two-day talks began on Monday.

The newspaper quoted Taliban sources as saying that the issues that remained incomplete in their last meeting in Abu Dhabi in December 2018 were discussed in the Doha meeting.

According to sources, the Taliban gave the assurance to the US officials that Afghanistan would never be used against any other country in future, it said.

"We repeated our demand for withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan," said one Taliban leader.

According to Taliban sources, the US delegation reiterated its demand that the Taliban agree to include the Afghan government in peace talks. But the Taliban again rejected the demand.

The Taliban said they asked the Americans to agree to exchange of prisoners first and then discuss other issues like lifting the ban on the movement of Taliban leaders.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a statement said: "Following American acceptance of the agenda of ending the invasion of Afghanistan and preventing Afghanistan from being used against other countries in the future, talks with American representatives took place" in Doha.

Earlier, the Pakistani authorities had made efforts to convince members of the Afghan Taliban to meet with the US delegation in Islamabad, the newspaper said.

Pakistan reportedly wanted Afghan Taliban to allow the Afghan government to join the peace negotiations.

However, the Taliban refused to send their representatives to Pakistan for meeting with Zalmay Khalilzad. The militant group also rejected the inclusion of the Afghan government in the peace talks.