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A senior United Nations official revealed that Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri maintains close ties with the Taliban, despite assurances from the Afghan insurgent movement to the United States to cut ties with Al-Qaeda.
The coordinator of the United Nations monitoring team on ISIS, Al Qaeda and the Taliban, Edmund Vitton Brown, added last Friday, during a webinar, according to Yahoo, that “the Taliban regularly consulted with Al Qaeda during ongoing peace negotiations with the United States “.
“(Al-Qaeda leader) Ayman Al-Zawahiri is still close to the Taliban. And the last, and provided guarantees that respect its historical ties with Al Qaeda.
But the Taliban rejected these accusations, saying that “certain intelligence groups” are trying to destabilize the peace in Afghanistan.
Despite the start of peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government in Qatar last month, violence on the ground has not stopped and fighting between the Taliban and the government has escalated in recent weeks.
The agreement concluded by the United States and the Taliban last February established that foreign forces would leave Afghanistan in May 2021 in exchange for anti-terrorist guarantees from the Taliban, who agreed to negotiate a permanent ceasefire and a formula for sharing power with the government. Afghan.
Last week, the United States participated in airstrikes against the Taliban, at the start of an attack in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, during which its forces seized large checkpoints and sealed off the provincial capital.
Diplomats and officials warned that the escalation of violence erodes the confidence necessary for the success of the Doha peace talks.
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