Maulavi Shahzada Shahid, a spokesman to the Afghan High Peace Council (HPC), said on Thursday that the main cause of war in the region is the interference and presence of foreign forces.
The comments come just a few days after a number of Afghan lawmakers expressed concerns with pro-Taliban statements being made by government officials.
The HPC spokesman called the former leader of Al-Qaeda, the late Osama Bin Laden, a martyr and criticized the presence U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
"The U.S. is selfish and arrogant and says that no one can stand before her technology," Maulavi Shazada Shahid said. "The U.S. acts in a manner that it can do whatever it wants, or influence someone, it thinks always to establish a system and change a regime, but these approaches pursued by the U.S. have led to insecurity in the region," he continued.
"The U.S. committed crimes in Iraq, the U.S. came under the pretext of Osama, you [the U.S.] martyred Osama and yet you are still here."
This is the first time an Afghan government official has publically declared Osama Bin Laden a martyr, and it has received quite a bit of blowback.
"When the President of Afghanistan begins secret relations with the Taliban and releases prisoners and allows elements to enter in the Presidential Palace with fake documents and even delay signing of the agreement to make Taliban happy, it is natural that the individuals who are related to government circles or serve on the HPC will talk louder than the President on behalf of the Taliban," Parliament's Youth Affairs Chairman Naqibullah Fayeq said.
Recent statements and actions from President Hamid Karzai, along with the most recent ones from the HPC spokesman, do not bode well for Kabul-Washington relations. Instead, they suggest Afghan leaders are looking to push the U.S. and its allies away while also ingrating themselves to violent Islamists in the region.