'Afghan peace deal a victory for the Taliban', says Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef ahead of Qatar ceremony

• The US and Taliban are set to sign the deal that could signal the end of the US's longest war after nearly two years of protracted negotiations.
• Former Afghanistan ambassador to Pakistan says, “Taliban didn’t change their thinking, but America did.”

Former Afghanistan ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef has teamed Afghanistan peace deal ‘a victory for Taliban’, as as The US and Taliban are set to sign long-waited deal in Doha on Saturday.

The US and Taliban are set to sign the deal that could signal the end of the US's longest war after nearly two years of protracted negotiations. Diplomats from Afghanistan, the US, India, Pakistan and other UN member states started gathering on Saturday morning along with Taliban representatives in Qatar capital.

Highlighting the importance of the deal, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef told Independent that the peace deal is victory for Taliban, as the US has ‘given up’.

“In 2001, the war, which was imposed on Afghanistan and Taliban by the US with the help of his allies, was not chosen by Afghan people or by Taliban,” said Zaeef. “I don’t say that, Taliban given up, but it was America who has given up.”

“In 2006, American realised that the resistance in Afghanistan against them was getting stronger day by day.  In 2008, the world and the US realized that Afghanistan can’t be ruled with power, but it needed a political solution to that.”

“Following that, a political channel was established for talks with Taliban. Saudi Arab, Pakistan, Indonesia and UAE were asked to play their role in that. However, Taliban didn’t agreed completely on that as America wanted.

Zaeef added: “So Taliban didn’t change their thinking, but America did.”

The 52-year-old also rejected that Taliban are not on the same page when it comes to deal. He said that today is last day of war, if Taliban leadership along with their allies were not on the same page how they be ending the war?

“It is not right to say that, Taliban leadership is not on the same page,” he said. “If they were not on the same page, then, how they all agreed to end the war? This not only means that they are fully aware of the situation, and are on full consensus when it comes to the deal.”

He also pointed out that Taliban could face difficulty when it comes to negotiating with the Afghans and vice versa. “The only difficulty that Taliban could face after the deal is to have talks with Afghans, and I say the same for them”

Furthermore, He said, almost all conditions of Taliban have been accepted including US have to leave Afghanistan in 14 months after the deal. Talks were also held regarding release of Taliban prisoners.