Wahidullah Waissi, the Afghan ambassador to Australia told SBS Dari the United States hoped for peace with the Taliban in a “very short time”, and required more time to "build trust".
The comments came after US President Donald Trump abruptly ended unprecedented peace talks with the fundamentalist organisation after a US soldier was killed in a bomb attack.
"They are dead. They are dead. As far as I'm concerned, they are dead," Trump told reporters in reference to the talks.
Until Trump's cancellation, there had been steadily mounting expectations of a deal that would see the US drawdown troop levels in Afghanistan.
In return, the Taliban would offer security guarantees to keep extremist groups, such as Al Qaeda, out of the country.
Mr Waissi said: “The peace process is very different from a peace settlement. We are still in the peace process and in the peace process, all parties involved in the conflict must reach a consensus … and they can take it up to a peace settlement.”
US President Donald Trump. Source: Getty Images North America
Trump's backflip came following nine rounds of negotiations between both parties in Doha, which appeared to result in a peace deal in principal.
“What happened in Doha was a process in which they wanted to make peace in a short time,” Mr Waissi said.
“It’s obvious, and there is no global experience, that in a very short time, without building any space and trust, peace would be made.”
Mr Waissi doubted that the Taliban could guarantee to keep extremist groups out of the country, and believed Trump arrived at the same conclusion.
“Indeed they later realised that Taliban, as an insurgent, extreme and hostile group, can never create a ground to guarantee what kinds of activities could and could not take place in Afghanistan’s soil."
To hear Ambassador Waissi’s interview in Dari, please click on the play button at the top of this page.
