Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has said if the Taliban want the United States out of Afghanistan, they should halt all violent attacks.
Speaking in Kabul on Sunday, Karzai referred specifically to blasts in the capital of Kabul and Khost provinces on Saturday as acts that would only extend the foreign troop presence in the Central Asian nation.
The bombings, which the Taliban claimed responsibility for, "were not to show [Taliban] prowess to the United States. They were in the service of the United States. They were in the service of the rhetoric of '2014'. It was meant to scare us, [to show] if they [foreign forces] are not here, 'we will not leave you alone'", Karzai said.
Karzai's speech came hours before his meeting with Chuck Hagel, the newly-named US secretary of defence, in Kabul.
Sunday's talks come amid a final deadline for US Special Forces to withdraw from Maidan Wardak, the province southwest of Kabul, after accusations of abuse by the Special Forces.
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