Taliban: U.S. Repeatedly Breached Doha Deal

Date: 09 May 2021 - 22:50

News ID: ۹۰۰۳۳

KABUL (Dispatches) – The United States has repeatedly violated the agreement reached with the Taliban in Qatar’s capital of Doha in 2020, the movement’s leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, said on Sunday.
"We consider the withdrawal of forces by the U.S. and other foreign countries a good step and strongly urge that all provisions of the Doha agreement be implemented,” Akhundzada stated in his address on Eid Al-Fitr, a Muslim holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, Sputnik reported.
In late April, the U.S. and NATO announced that they began withdrawing their troops that have been deployed in Afghanistan for two decades. They are planning to complete the pullout by September 11, thus missing the deadline set in the Donald Trump-era deal with the Taliban.
"Unfortunately, the U.S. side has repeatedly violated the agreement so far and caused enormous human and material losses to civilians,” he added.
Among the violations, the Taliban leader mentioned the failure to free all prisoners and remove the names of Talibs from sanctions and rewards lists, as well as the postponement of troops’ withdrawal from May to September.
If Washington fails to fulfil its commitments, the international community should hold the U.S. accountable for all the consequences, he continued, noting that the group is ready to protect the independence and sovereignty of its homeland "at any cost”.
The remarks came a day after multiple blasts rocked the Afghan capital Kabul.
The death toll from an explosion outside a school in Kabul has risen to 58, Afghan officials say.
Officials said on Sunday that medical staff in hospitals were struggling to provide medical care to at least 150 people, mostly schoolgirls, who were injured in the blast on Saturday.
The blast occurred in front of a school in the Shia majority neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi in western Kabul.
An eyewitness reported that the victims of the attack were mostly female students headed on their way back home after finishing school.
The death toll in the blasts might increase, Tariq Arian, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said on Sunday.
According to the ministry, there were a total of three consecutive blasts in the afternoon near Kabul’s Seyyed ul-Shohada Girls School in Dasht-e-Barchi.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said the Taliban militant group was responsible for the attack.
The Taliban, however, did not claim responsibility for the blast.