Amid ongoing review of the US-Taliban deal by the new Biden administration in the United States, the Taliban has ordered its military commanders all across Afghanistan not toinclude any foreign fighters in its ranks. 

An Afghan media outlet, TOLOnews, reported that the Taliban’s Military Commission, the highest body overseeing the insurgency in Afghanistan, has written a letter to its commanders, instructing them to not include foreign fighters in the fighting. 

The move comes when the diplomatic pressure is building over the Taliban to cut its ties with regional and international terror groups in Afghanistan- a key commitment made in the 2020 US-Taliban deal signed in Doha, Qatar. 

Earlier, several officials of the US, NATO, and the UN stated that the insurgent hasn’t cut its ties with terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda, in Afghanistan. A UN report recently also said the group maintained its close contacts with al-Qaeda.  

The development comes a day after the Afghan insurgent group resumed talks with the Afghan government negotiation team in Doha, Qatar on Monday.  

Under the US-Taliban deal, signed during the previous administration in the US, all foreign forces are expected to withdraw from Afghanistan by May 2021. Since the insurgent group hasn’t kept its key promises, under the same deal, of reducing violence and cutting off ties with terror groups, the withdrawal seems unlikely by the May deadline. 

The Taliban has repeatedly asked the US and NATO to follow the US-Taliban deal and even called the deal the best way to end the conflict in the country. The insurgent group, by all likelihood, will consider the unilateral extension of the May deadline a violation of the Doha deal.