Secretive Taliban leader Mullah Omar signaled support for
Afghan peace talks in a message to supporters Wednesday.
"Concurrently
with armed jihad, political endeavors and peaceful pathways for achieving these
sacred goals is a legitimate Islamic principle and an integral part of
Prophetic politics," he said in a message released on the eve of Eid
celebrations to mark the end of Ramadan.
The Taliban
leader said he had ordered the formation of a "Political Office" that
was "entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring and conducting all
political activities."
"The
objective behind our political endeavors as well as contacts and interactions
with countries of the world and our own Afghans is to bring an end to the
occupation and to establish an independent Islamic system in our country,"
he said, after explaining at length why negotiating with "infidels"
is permitted by the Quran and actions of the Prophet Mohammed.
His message
comes a week after the Afghan
government held face-to-face talks with Taliban representatives for the first time in an attempt to
work toward a peace process.
Mujahedeen
told to stay united
Mullah Omar also sent an apparent warning to ISIS,
the Sunni extremist group that has seized a swath of territory across Syria and Iraq,
not to create a new front in Afghanistan.
"Since
maintaining the unity of jihadi front in our country is a religious obligation,
we have therefore directed all our mujahedeen to preserve their unity and
forcefully prevent all those elements who attempt to create differences, damage
this jihadi front or try to disperse the mujahedeen," he said.
His words come
after ISIS published a long interview in its
English-language propaganda magazine, Dabiq, in which a Muslim scholar argued
that jihadi forces should back the self-declared caliphate of leader Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi over the "regional" leader Mullah Omar.
Insurgency rages
The Afghan government described last
week's talks, hosted by Pakistan,
as "the start of the first ever official peace talks" between the two
sides.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had
been seeking dialogue with the Taliban with the encouragement of the United
States.
But finding a
peaceful resolution to the country's lengthy conflict will be challenging, to
say the least.
As U.S. and
other NATO troops are drawing down their numbers
in Afghanistan, the Taliban insurgency continues to rage across wide areas of
the country. The militants attempted a
brazen attack on the national parliament last
month.
The U.S. combat
mission in Afghanistan ended last year, leaving the Afghan military to lead the
fight against the Taliban. The thousands of NATO troops that remain in
Afghanistan are there in a training and support role.
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