KABUL, 12 October 2021, (TON): The United States has agreed to provide humanitarian aid to a desperately poor Afghanistan on the brink of an economic disaster, while refusing to give political recognition to the Taliban rulers, according to a statement released.

The statement came at the end of the first direct talks between the former foes since the chaotic withdrawal of US troops at the end of August.

The Taliban said “the talks held in Doha, Qatar, went well, with Washington freeing up humanitarian aid to Afghanistan after agreeing not to link such assistance to formal recognition of Taliban.”

The United States made it clear that the talks were in no way a preamble to recognition of the Taliban, who swept into power on Aug 15 after the US-allied government collapsed.

Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen said the movement’s interim foreign minister assured the US during the talks that the Taliban were committed to seeing that Afghan soil is not used by extremists to launch attacks against other countries.

On Saturday, however, the Taliban ruled out cooperation with Washington on containing the increasingly active militant Islamic State group in Afghanistan.