Taliban Say Talks With Afghan President ‘Waste of Time’

(Bloomberg) -- The Afghan Taliban rejected an offer by President Ashraf Ghani to hold peace talks in a blow to efforts by the U.S. administration to end the 17-year old war.

The Taliban reiterated that “talking to powerless and foreign imposed entities is a waste of time because impotent sides do not possess the capacity for making decisions,” the militant group’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said in a statement on Thursday, a day after Ghani formed a 12-member team to negotiate with them.

The group is fighting and negotiating with the U.S. administration, he said.

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