Taliban militants say they will not attend planned peace talks with the United States in Saudi Arabia this month and want a shift of venue to Qatar, the political headquarters of the group.
A senior Taliban member told media outlets on Sunday that the militant group had sought to counter Riyadh’s push to include the Afghan government in talks.
“We were supposed to meet US officials in Riyadh next week and continue our peace process that remained incomplete in Abu Dhabi last month,” the Taliban official said.
“The problem is that leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) wanted us to definitely meet the Afghan government delegation, which we cannot afford to do now, and we have cancelled the meeting in Saudi Arabia,” he added.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also confirmed the group had cancelled the meeting in Saudi Arabia.