Amrullah Saleh, the former Vice President of Afghanistan in the previous government, says that fighting the Taliban had nothing to do with the presence or withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan, and that citizens of the country were fighting the Taliban even before the presence of foreign forces.

Saleh said in remarks on X on Saturday, September 26, that NATO and American forces were present in Afghanistan for 20 years, and their stated goal was to defeat the Taliban, but this goal was not achieved, and ultimately, according to him, the “shameful Doha Agreement” led to the Taliban’s empowerment.

He added that the intervention of foreign forces disrupted the internal struggle of Afghan citizens and imposed political frameworks and slogans on this process that, in his belief, had little connection to the realities of Afghanistan.

Saleh also claimed that the reasons for the Taliban’s empowerment are recorded in the secret annexes of the Doha Agreement and called for the public release of these annexes.

He emphasized that if these annexes do not contain shameful matters and no agreement was made against the will of the Afghan people, they should be published for public opinion.

The Doha Agreement was signed on February 29, 2020, between the United States and the Taliban in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

Under this agreement, the United States and its allies committed to withdrawing foreign forces from Afghanistan, and the Taliban also accepted commitments to prevent the use of Afghan soil against the United States and its allies and to begin “intra-Afghan negotiations.”