At a press conference in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, the Taliban warned the United States against overstepping a May 1 deadline for the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan. The group promised a “reaction”, without being specific about what that would be.

The warning came one day after the group met with senior Afghan government negotiators and international observers to try to revive a stalled peace process. Khairullah Khairkhwa, a member of the negotiating team, who was one of five Taliban freed from the Guantanamo Bay prison in 2013, in exchange for the release of a captured US soldier, said, “I started ‘jihad’  to remove foreign forces from my country and establish an Islamic government, and jihad will continue until we reach that goal through a political agreement.” Suhail Shaheen, a member of the Taliban negotiation team, said, “They should go.” Shaheen added, “After that, it will be a kind of violation of the agreement. That violation would not be from our side … their violation will have a reaction.”

United States President Joe Biden, meanwhile, said the May 1 deadline “could happen, but it is tough”. He added, however, that if extended the deadline would be considerably later.

According to Al Jazeera, in keeping with February 2020’s agreement , the Taliban have not attacked US or NATO forces. Nevertheless, there have reportedly been bombings, for which no group has taken responsibility, as well as a spike in targeted killings of Afghan security forces and civilians.

The Taliban also resisted major regional players who said Afghanistan should not return to being an Islamic state. The United States, Russia, China and Pakistan in a joint statement on Thursday rejected the possibility of “the restoration of the Islamic Emirate”. But, a Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Naeem, said it was up to Afghans to decide their system of governance and that it should be an Islamic system. Shaheen, meanwhile, also said the Taliban was firm on their demand for an Islamic government. Al Jazeerah reports that he emphasized that the government of President Ashraf Ghani did not fit the Taliban’s definition of an Islamic government.

Umm Muhammed Umar