Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, says the Taliban does not believe in elections and that the group is seeking to take over Afghanistan by force once the foreign forces leave the country as part of a peace deal.

In an interview with TOLOnews, Haqqani said there is no justification of continuing the talks with the Taliban in the view of a surge in violence in Afghanistan. 

He suggested that the US should swiftly suspend the negotiations with the group.

“I think that the Taliban’s real intention is to talk to the Americans, have an agreement that will result in an American withdrawal and after that, go ahead and take Afghanistan by force,” he said. 

Haqqani said that the Taliban would have recognized the legitimacy of the government in Kabul “if they were sincere about peace”.  

“The only way there will be peace in Afghanistan is when all parties compromise, especially the Taliban, who have been the most uncompromising so far,” the ex-Pakistani envoy said.  

Haqqani said the real peace in Afghanistan will come “when Pakistan’s ISI stops interfering in Afghanistan and when Afghan leaders stop approaching various other powers whether it is India, or Iran or Russia or America”. 

He also suggested that real peace will happen when Afghans deal with Afghanistan as a sovereign country with full respect. 

“I think if the United States announces a withdrawal and Pakistan gets a lot of concessions thinking that Pakistan has helped that peace process but there is no real peace, there is conflict in Afghanistan and then Pakistan helps the Taliban take over Afghanistan once again. Pakistan will have had both things. It will have had the American approval in helping the Americans withdrawal and it will have its dream which is to control Afghanistan with the help of proxies. That is what the game seems to be at this moment,” Haqqani said but added that he hopes Pakistan will sincerely help Afghanistan to achieve peace. 

The Presidential Palace said the return of the Taliban as a regime is not possible. 

“There is no way to the return of the Taliban regime. Today’s Afghanistan is different than 18 years ago. Now, Afghanistan has significant gains. Taliban regime with the support of ISI can never come back to Afghanistan,” President Ghani’s spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told reporters in Kabul on Monday. 

He said that “there is no doubt that the Taliban has a systematic relation with the Pakistani intelligence and military”.  

This comes as Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan who will meet US President Donald Trump on Monday said that there is a military solution to the ongoing conflict in the country. 

“I can say it with pride from the very first day that there is no military solution in Afghanistan, I have said constantly that the war is not the solution. But they call me everything. They call me a terrorist, they called me Taliban Khan and so on, but God is great, today everyone says that there is no military solution in Afghanistan,” said Imran Khan told a crowd of Pakistani citizens in Washington.