Taliban announced on Tuesday that the group will not be attending any upcoming summits related to Afghanistan’s future unless all foreign forces have been retracted from the country. A similar event was scheduled this month. 

Taliban’s Qatar office spokesperson, Mohammad Naeem tweeted, “Until all foreign forces completely withdraw from our homeland, (we) will not participate in any conference that shall make decisions about Afghanistan”, reported AFP.

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The decision came after it was revealed that US President Joe Biden will be pushing back the deadline for retracting US troops from Afghanistan from May 1 and setting it at September 11, 2021.

The conference, which was being held between April 24 and May 4 in Istanbul, was originally aimed at renewing Afghanistan’s prolonged situation of being submerged in conflict.

The recent announcement is one of the first official responses recorded from the side of Taliban after the news about delaying the troop withdrawal went public. The decision not only puts the future of Afghanistan’s peace in question but also presses the possibility of Taliban re-engaging with the US in a hostile manner.