US State Department Spokesperson Calls Taliban A Terrorist Organisation
During a press briefing, Vedant Patel, the Deputy Spokesperson for the US Department of State called the Taliban a "terrorist organisation."
Patel told reporters, " I’m fairly certain the Taliban is a designated terrorist organisation."
The Deputy Spokesperson of the US State Department made these remarks on Monday evening, July 29, during a press briefing in Washington in response to a reporter's question.
The reporter referred to the bill proposed by Nancy Mace, a US congresswoman, and asked Patel whether the US agrees with designating the Taliban as a terrorist organisation similar to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
TTP is listed in the Department of State's "Foreign Terrorist Organisations" list, but the Afghan Taliban has not yet been included in this list.
Recently, Nancy Mace introduced a bill to the US Congress that would designate the Taliban as a "Foreign Terrorist Organisation."
According to Mace's statement, a key point of this bill is that no US government entity can recognise the Taliban government or allocate funds for this purpose.
Although the US does not recognise the Taliban government, US policy since the withdrawal from Afghanistan has focused on engagement with the Taliban.
