IS have known to target Shiite Muslims and the Taliban, while the Taliban have said they won’t work with US to contain the Islamic State.
The Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told The Associated Press that there would be no cooperation with Washington on going after the increasingly active Islamic State group affiliate in Afghanistan.
The group has taken responsibility for a number of attacks, including a suicide bombing that killed 46 minority Shiite Muslims and wounded dozens as they prayed in a mosque.
On Saturday the Taliban ruled out cooperation with the U.S. to contain extremist groups in Afghanistan, staking out an uncompromising position on a key issue ahead of the first direct talks between the US and the Taliban since America withdrew there troops.
Shaheen was asked whether the Taliban would work with the U.S. to contain the Islamic State affiliate, he replied while using an Arabic acronym for IS “We are able to tackle Daesh independently,”
In addition of been one of the major threats to the United States, IS has also carried out relentless assaults on the country’s Shiite Muslims since emerging in eastern Afghanistan in 2014.
During the Doha talks, U.S. officials will also seek to hold Taliban leaders to commitments that they would allow Americans and other foreign nationals to leave Afghanistan, along with Afghans who once worked for the U.S. military or government and other Afghan allies, a U.S. official said.
