The legitimate government of Afghanistan is considering a power-sharing agreement with the Taliban, but not unless the Taliban acknowledges its legitimacy, a senior official said this weekend.

The Taliban is also reportedly “considering” a plan proposed to share power over Afghanistan with the elected government. The plan is, local media reported, an American proposal that would result in the withdrawal of American troops from the country.

“We responded to the proposals, but not in writing, we had a meeting of the High Council for National Reconciliation and there we decided that we are not against dividing powers. We shared our assessments on all these issues such as how to preserve Afghanistan’s constitution, strengthen institutions and prevent the system’s collapse,” Abdullah Abdullah, head of the Afghan government’s High Council for National Reconciliation, told Russia’s Tass news service in an interview Sunday.

“As for the mere idea of dividing powers before holding the election, we told the Americans that we could discuss this with the Taliban,” Abdullah said.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani made a similar point last week, saying his vision of “power sharing” involved the Taliban running candidates in fair elections and abiding by the results, rather than forming a joint government with the jihadi extremists or retiring from his own office so a hybrid Taliban-Kabul interim government could take over.

“If the Taliban are ready to participate in elections tomorrow, we are ready. But without elections, I am not ready to transfer the power to my successor,” Ghani said last Tuesday.

Abdullah said the Taliban has not yet given a formal response to the power-sharing proposal, but Tass noted a Taliban spokesman in Qatar said on Friday his organization was “considering” the plan and has “not rejected” it out of hand.

Abdullah also told Tass he had no information on if the U.S. would withdraw troops from Afghanistan by May 1, as agreed in February 2020 negotiations with the Taliban.

“I cannot give you a concrete answer because it is not my decision. It is up to the United States and NATO to decide. All I can say is that if peace is established or a serious progress towards it is reached, there will be no need in the presence of foreign troops,” Abdullah said.

“Troops withdrawal is part of the Doha agreement and we know about that. But the agreement also sets forth a number of conditions: progress in intra-Afghan talks, fighting against terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, reduction in the level of violence,” he noted.

“These conditions have not been implemented. We know nothing about the Americans’ decision concerning withdrawal of troops, but they are looking at whether the agreement’s terms have been fulfilled or not,” Abdullah said.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin paid an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Sunday for a meeting with Ghani, becoming the first Cabinet-level official in the Biden administration to visit the country. 

Austin told reporters the U.S. wants a “responsible end to this conflict” and a “transition to something else.”

“There’s always going to be concerns about things one way or the other, but I think there is a lot of energy focused on doing what is necessary to bring about a responsible end and a negotiated settlement to the war,” he said.

Austin was elaborately noncommittal on the Biden administration plans to meet the May 1 withdrawal deadline, which he described as one of “the requirements that the Taliban has kind of laid out.”

“I would just tell you that there’s probably nobody who understands the physics associated with moving troops and equipment out of a place better than me. And I think that as we work through this process, we’ll keep all those things in mind, and we’ll keep as many options open as we can. Whatever the decision is that the president makes, you know, you can trust that it will be fully supportable,” Austin said.