Afghan security forces carry an injured man after a suicide attack on the Indian consulate in the city of Jalalabad east of Kabul, Afghanistan on Mar. 2. (Mohammad Anwar Danishyar/AP)
KABUL — Taliban leaders will not participate in peace talks with the Afghan government, the insurgent group said in a statement Saturday, throwing into question a U.S.-backed plan to negotiate an end to the country’s 14-year-old war.
Face-to-face talks between Afghan officials and Taliban leaders were scheduled to take place in Pakistan this month as part of a wider bid by the United States, Pakistan and China to broker peace between the two sides. Representatives from the three countries met in Kabul last month to set conditions for the talks.
But on Saturday, the Taliban — which leads Afghanistan’s violent insurgency — rejected reports its leaders would be participating in the meeting. Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour “has not authorized anyone to participate,” the statement said.
The statement, posted on the group’s website, said that the Taliban’s political representatives have “not been kept informed about negotiations” and that its leaders would refuse such talks as long as U.S. troops are fighting the Taliban on the battlefield.
“Unless the occupation of Afghanistan is ended . . . and innocent prisoners freed, such futile misleading negotiations will not bear any results,” the statement said.
[Afghan government, Taliban set to resume direct peace talks next week]
On Friday, President Obama spoke with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and “underscored U.S. support for a peace process that reduces violence and ensures lasting stability in Afghanistan and the region,” a statement from the White House said.
During a videoconference between the two leaders, Obama noted Ghani’s role in advancing “the reconciliation process with the Taliban,” the statement said.
Saturday’s statement from the insurgent group underscored the difficulty of bringing the two sides together — and raised questions about the credibility of the countries involved in brokering a deal.
The Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, has waged a bloody, anti-government rebellion in recent years. Its fighters have pushed into key areas as U.S. and NATO troops withdraw from the country.
Civilian casualties hit record highs in 2015, according to the U.N. mission in Afghanistan. The Pentagon announced last month that hundreds of U.S. Army soldiers will be deployed to Afghanistan’s volatile Helmand province to protect U.S. Special Operations forces in the area.
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