Dec 3, 2021: Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called the Taliban his “brothers” and said he had fruitful meetings with the country’s new rulers and discussed issues facing the country.

“I see the Taliban as very much brothers and all other Afghans as brothers,” he told the BBC in an exclusive interview. Karzai said that during his tenure in office, he would call the Taliban his brother and “for that very purpose I called them brothers”.

“This is our country, this country is ours so we are the sons of dust, we should not leave. We must stay here and make it better. And I would say to all the Afghans who left [the country] and come back and build it.”

He emphasized that the formation of a comprehensive government in a war-torn country required a political process acceptable to all Afghans. “This is your country … let’s build it together. Let’s work together … I have met with them [the Taliban] and exchanges on many issues were very good,” he said.

The BBC’s Yalda Hakeem also asked Karzai when the girls and women would return to education and work. He said they had discussed the matter and the Taliban had agreed that he should return.

He also called upon the international community particularly the United States to help rebuild the war-torn country and “must work with the Taliban, they are government today”.

“Afghanistan was bombed in the name of fighting the Taliban. Our villages were bombed, families were destroyed and children were killed,” he added.

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