Karzai: Taliban Are Afghans and Belong to This Land

DID Press: Former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has described the exclusion of the Taliban from the 2001 Bonn Conference as a “major mistake,” saying the group is part of Afghanistan and should have been included in efforts to shape the country’s political future.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Karzai said he had supported the participation of the Taliban in the process from the outset.Karzai said his goal had always been to build a united Afghanistan and stressed that opposition to the Taliban should not mean excluding part of the Afghan population.

“The Taliban are also Afghans and belong to this land,” he said.The former president said a national consensus was necessary to end decades of conflict in Afghanistan. “All of us — both opponents of the Taliban and the Taliban — are Afghans,” he said, arguing that cooperation and dialogue were necessary to end the country’s prolonged conflict.

Karzai also defended his decision to remain in Kabul after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. He said several “friendly governments” had repeatedly offered to help him leave the country in the days before the fall of Kabul, but he chose to stay in Afghanistan and remain alongside his people.