Zabihullah Mujahid: No al-Qaeda member is present in Afghanistan.
A Taliban spokesman said no member of the al-Qaeda terrorist group was present in Afghanistan.
According to Mehr News Agency, quoting Sputnik, Tolo Afghanistan news network on Tuesday quoted Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid as saying that members of the al-Qaeda terrorist group were not present in Afghanistan.
“Concerns about al-Qaeda’s presence in Afghanistan are growing,” Mujahid said. [But] these comments are propaganda in nature. We have not seen anyone in Afghanistan who is a member of al-Qaeda. The Islamic Emirate [the Taliban government] has pledged to the United States in this regard. “Under these commitments, we will not allow anyone to use Afghan territory to threaten others.”
In mid-September, US intelligence agencies warned that al-Qaeda could use Afghan territory to plan attacks on the United States sooner than expected – within two years; This is because the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan has shortened this period.
In return, the Taliban vowed to sever ties with al-Qaeda and prevent Afghanistan from becoming a safe haven for terrorist groups.
It should be noted that Afghanistan had already provided a safe haven for al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, to plan and direct the 9/11 attacks, which was one of the reasons cited by US officials at the time for authorizing a military strike on Afghanistan was a congress and the beginning of a bloody and fruitless war that lasted 20 years.
