Taliban isn't US enemy: Joe Biden

NEW DELHI: The US has said Taliban is not “per se” its enemy and that the militant group posed a threat to it and its allies only if it engaged with al-Qaeda and other outfits.

“Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy. That’s critical. There is not a single statement that the president has ever made in any of our policy assertions that the Taliban is our enemy because it threatens US interests,” US vice-president Joe Biden said in an interview to the Newsweek Magazine.

His remarks came amid reports of possible peace talks with the Taliban. He said if the Taliban was able to collapse the existing government, which is cooperating with the US in keeping the “bad guys” from being able to do damage to it, then it was a problem.

“So there’s a dual track here: One, continue to keep the pressure on al-Qaeda and continue to diminish them. Two, put the government in a position where they can be strong enough that they can negotiate with and not be overthrown by the Taliban.

“And at the same time try to get the Taliban to move in the direction to see to it that they, through reconciliation, commit not to be engaged with al-Qaeda or any other organisation that they would harbour to do damage to us and our allies,” Biden said. White House press secretary Jay Carney supported Biden’s comments. “We didn’t invade Afghanistan.

We did not send US military personnel into Afghanistan because the Taliban were in power. They had been in power. We went into Afghanistan because al-Qaeda had launched an attack against the US from Afghanistan,” he said.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney reportedly said Biden’s remarks are “bizarre, factually wrong and an outrageous affront our troops carrying out the fight in Afghanistan”.

Washington had assured withdrawal of 33,000 surge troops within a year and most foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.