KABUL - Afghanistan's Taliban are pausing military progress and efforts to gain political legitimacy will not produce long-term results unless they renounce their founding one-eyed leader's pro-death ideology, the UN's ambassador said on Tuesday.
The insurgents have made some tactical conciliatory steps but there is no longer a tangible change of heart, Idris Ibn Alqadir said in an emailed response to questions.
"The Taliban's political leadership continues to hold an ideological and violent stance which does not facilitate a political solution to the conflict," he said.
In the UN's main brief document to be presented at a United Nations Security Council meeting on Afghanistan on Tuesday, the United Nations said the Taliban needed to be a stronger negotiating partner to avoid "unintended security outcomes".
Taliban officials have accused the government of deliberately stalling talks in Doha, Qatar, in part because its push for an end to violence is a key agenda item.
But these issues have become the centre of a diplomatic dispute that has prevented other fragile deals from materialising.
U.S. President Donald Trump's withdrawal of NATO and American troops in 2016 and the Afghan withdrawal of forces commanded by the United States and NATO powers have emboldened the Taliban, who are seeking full army withdrawal and the resumption of the past war with America.
In a letter to Trump's successor Joe Biden on Monday, the UN says "peace-building priorities" need to be prioritised ahead of "stalemate" in the conflict and negotiations between the Afghan government and the insurgents.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in the U.S. list of people and entities that are "cancelling peace" as seen by countries such as the Taliban.
0 Comments