The Taliban Claims To Be Able To Overcome ISIS Alone: We Are Ready To Be Inclusive But Not Selective

JAKARTA - The Taliban said they would not cooperate with the United States against the terrorist group ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K), saying they could independently tackle the threat posed by the group.

Senior Taliban officials and US representatives met last weekend in Doha, Qatar, the first high-level talks since the United States' withdrawal from Afghanistan. The issue of the so-called terrorist group is included in the discussion.

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said there would be no cooperation with Washington to contain the increasingly active Islamic State group in Afghanistan.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for a number of recent attacks, including Friday's suicide bombing that killed 46 minority Shia Muslims and injured dozens of others as they prayed at a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz.

"We can tackle Daesh (ISIS) independently," Shaheen told the Associated Press as quoted Oct. 11, when asked if the Taliban would work with the United States to confront the ISIS affiliate.

ISIS has carried out relentless attacks against Shiites in the country since it emerged in eastern Afghanistan in 2014. ISIS is also seen as a terror group that poses the greatest threat to the United States because of its potential to launch attacks against American targets.

Meanwhile, launching Al-Jazeera, Suhail Shaheen said the Islamic Emirate is ready to be inclusive but not selective, as Western pressure on inclusiveness.

The Taliban said members of the ethnic minority had been represented in the Cabinet announced last month, while women would be added later.

"The international community must respect the wishes of the Afghan people," Suhail Shaheen told Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview.

Shaheen's comments came as a Taliban delegation led by acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi arrived in Doha for talks with Qatari officials and representatives from a number of other countries, including the United States.

US officials, including intelligence and the State Department, held their first face-to-face meetings with Taliban officials since US troops withdrew from Afghanistan on August 30.

Security agencies from regional and international powers are also expected to hold talks with the Taliban delegation, which includes intelligence chief Mullah Abdul Haq Wasiq, Information and Culture Minister Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa and Sheikh Shahabuddin Delawar.

Maulvi Dilawar is one of the founding members of the Doha-based Taliban negotiating team. He was sent by the group's founding chairman Mullah Mohammed Omar to set up a Doha political office.

Earlier, Suhail Shaheen on Thursday held a meeting with ambassadors and representatives from several countries, including Britain and the United States in Doha.

The Taliban insist Washington must honor the 2020 agreement signed in Doha and remove sanctions and disburse billions of dollars worth of Afghanistan's central bank assets. Many Taliban leaders, including the current minister, are still blacklisted by the United Nations and the United States.

Afghanistan's central bank assets worth more than $9 billion have been frozen by the United States, while international financial institutions such as the IMF have suspended Afghanistan's access to its funds triggering a liquidity crisis.