Taliban 'not seeking to seize all of Afghanistan'

The leader of the Taliban's peace negotiations with the US says the insurgents do not want to seize "the whole country by [military] power".

"It will not bring peace to Afghanistan," Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai told the BBC.

However, he said the group would not agree to a ceasefire until foreign forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan.

UN data shows the Taliban are responsible for more civilian casualties than any other party.

Mr Stanikzai, who until recently was the head of the Taliban's political office in Qatar and remains a leading figure in the group, was giving his first interview to the international media while attending a meeting in Moscow with senior Afghan opposition politicians.

He said the Taliban's experiences in power in the 1990s, when it faced armed opposition from rival Afghan groups, had led the group to conclude it was preferable to reach a solution by "coming to the table".

The meeting in Moscow is separate from the US-Taliban peace talks.

In addition to a Taliban delegation, it was also attended by former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, as well as other high-profile opposition figures.

Topics of discussions included how the country could be governed in the future, if the Taliban were to become a mainstream political force. - Read More

Taliban 'not seeking to seize all of Afghanistan' - BBC News