The Taliban has said they won’t agree on a ceasefire until there is a new negotiated government acceptable to all, adding they don’t believe in monopoly of power.
 
“I want to make it clear that we do not believe in the monopoly of power because any governments who (sought) to monopolize power in Afghanistan in the past, were not successful governments,” Suhail Shaheen, the spokesperson of the Taliban political office in Doha, said in an interview to American newswire The Associated Press. 

The group, Shaheen said, didn’t want to repeat the same failed formula. 

He also said the insurgent group will lay down their weapons when a negotiated government acceptable to all sides in the conflict is installed in the country and Ghani’s government is gone. Demanding a ceasefire before an agreement on a new government, he said, is equal to seeking the Taliban’s surrender. 

All efforts in the past few months to reduce violence have failed. In contrast, despite the departure of foreign troops--which was the most important and longstanding demand of the group--the Taliban intensified attacks on the Afghan security forces and seized control of a large part of the country. 

Intra-Afghan talks, which started in September last year as the result of the landmark Doha agreement, failed to produce any substantial outcome to end the conflict.

The Taliban has long been avoiding any concentrated international efforts for a negotiated settlement, saying only Afghans will decide what kind of government they want to have. 

Recently, senior delegations of the Taliban and the Afghan government held talks in Doha where they agreed to have a negotiated settlement, fast-tracking the peace process, and a pledge to continue discussions. Talks didn’t yield any outcome on reducing violence in the country. 

Recent media reports talked about how the group started imposing harsh and repressive regulations on women in the areas under their control. Shaheen, in the interview with the AP, denied it, saying women will have rights to education, work and won’t be subjected to the conservative rules earlier imposed during the 90s. 

He however admitted that some Taliban commanders went ahead on their own, ignoring the directives issued by the leadership, and imposed certain restrictions. These commanders, he said, have been put before their military commission and punished. 

 (SAM)