Blinken: The Taliban have “blatantly” violated the Doha agreement by harboring al-Zawahiri

On Monday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the “Taliban” movement “blatantly” violated the Doha agreement by hosting and harboring Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

US President Joe Biden said on Monday the United States had killed al-Zawahiri in a strike in Afghanistan at the weekend, in the biggest blow to the militant group since the killing of its founder Osama bin Laden in 2011.

“In the face of the Taliban’s unwillingness or inability to live up to their commitments, we will continue to support the Afghan people with robust humanitarian assistance and advocate for the protection of human rights, especially the rights of women and girls,” Blinken said in a statement.

Earlier (Monday), a senior US official said that the presence of the al-Qaeda leader in the Afghan capital, Kabul, was a “clear violation” of the 2020 agreement signed by the Taliban with Washington, in which it pledged not to allow Afghanistan to become a haven for international terrorism.

With Biden announcing the killing of Al-Zawahiri in a drone strike (Saturday) in the Afghan capital, the senior US administration official said, “We expect them to abide by the terms of the Doha agreement… And Al-Zawahiri’s presence in the center of Kabul was a clear violation of that.”

The US President’s announcement of this operation comes a year after the United States left Afghanistan. However, Al-Zawahiri’s presence in the Afghan capital may lead to tension in relations between Washington and the “Taliban” movement.

In turn, the spokesman for the “Taliban” movement, Zabihullah Mujahid, confirmed in a statement the strike and strongly condemned it as a violation of “international principles.”