Taliban calls US ‘a great nation,’ urges co-op with Afghanistan

AFGHANISTAN’ S Taliban administration appointed foreign minister called America “a great nation” as he called on the United States and other countries to cooperate with the country and pledged commitment to provide jobs and education to women and girls.

“You are a great and big nation, and you must have enough patience and have a big heart to dare to make policies on Afghanistan based on international rules and relegation, and to end the differences and make the distance between us shorter and choose good relations with Afghanistan,” Amir Khan Muttaqi told an interview with The Associated Press (AP) on Sunday.

He noted that the Taliban government wants good relations with all countries and has no issue with the U.S. He urged Washington and other nations to release upward of $10 billion in funds that were frozen when the Taliban took power Aug. 15, following a rapid military sweep across Afghanistan and the sudden, secret flight of U.S.backed President Ashraf Ghani.

“Sanctions against Afghanistan would ... not have any benefit,” Muttaqi said Sunday, speaking in his native Pashto during the interview in the sprawling pale brick Foreign Ministry building in the heart of the capital of Kabul.

“Making Afghanistan unstable or having a weak Afghan government is not in the interest of anyone,” said Muttaqi, whose aides include employees of the previous government as well as those recruited from the ranks of the Taliban.

At a White House briefing on Monday, press secretary Jen Psaki said the “reserves remain inaccessible to the Taliban.” She did not foresee an early change, saying the U.S. money is now linked to those claims by victims of the 9/11 attacks in the U.S., which were carried out by al-Qaida while it was harbored in Afghanistan by the Taliban.