Key Taliban leader Haqqani seeks good relations with US, international community

Kabul [Afghanistan], May 17 (ANI): Key Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani on Monday said that his outfit, which now rules Afghanistan, seeks "good relations with the US and the international community."
Haqqani,who is also acting as the "Minister for Interior" in Taliban regime, which took over Kabul in August last year, made the comments during an interview to CNN.
Responding to a question on whether his outfit still considers US as the enemy, said that they do not "look at them (US) as enemies" and are committed to the Doha agreement, and want relations with the US based on principles and diplomatic norms, Tolo News reported.
"I would like to make a small clarification. The period of the last 20 years was a situation of defensive fighting and war. When the agreement was made in Doha, we decided that we would not be talking about this. In the future, we would like to have good relations with the United States and the international community," Haqqani reportedly said.
Haqqani also talked about the ongoing human rights issues in Afghanistan including women's education saying that "good news" will be heard about the education of girls and that a mechanism is being developed in this regard, the report said.
"We all believe that education has been created as a blessing from God, which has been made essential to both men and women. As I mentioned earlier, there is no one who is opposed to education," Haqqani said.
"The problem is education based on the Afghan way of thinking and understanding, the culture aspect of Afghanistan. There is an issue of making arrangements of Islamic rules and principles," he added.
In a recent decree, the Taliban regime banned female students above grade six from participating in their classes. The girls were further told to stay home until the Islamic Emirate announces its next decision. (ANI)