MOSCOW, Sept 15, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A Taliban delegation held talks with
Russian officials in Moscow after US negotiations with the Afghan insurgents
collapsed, the Russian foreign ministry said Saturday.
“The Russian president’s special representative for Afghanistan… Zamir
Kabulov, hosted a Taliban delegation in Moscow,” a ministry spokesman said,
quoted by RIA Novosti state-funded news agency.
No date for the talks was given.
“The Russian side stressed the need to relaunch negotiations between the
United States and the Taliban movement,” the spokesman said.
“For their part, the Taliban confirmed their willingness to pursue
dialogue with Washington,” he added.
Until a week ago expectation had steadily mounted of a US-Taliban deal
that would see the US drawdown of troop levels in Afghanistan and the Taliban
offer security guarantees to keep extremist groups out.
But last week, Trump revealed he had cancelled an unprecedented meeting
between the Taliban and himself in the United States and declared the talks
with the militants “dead”.
In a tweet on Saturday, Trump said: “The Taliban has never been hit harder
than it is being hit right now. Killing 12 people, including one great
American soldier, was not a good idea. There are much better ways to set up a
negotiation. The Taliban knows they made a big mistake, and they have no idea
how to recover!”
With more than 13,000 US troops still in Afghanistan, Trump has been eager
to end America’s longest war, launched 18 years ago after the September 11
attacks.
But fears are now growing of increased violence with presidential
elections set for September 28 in Afghanistan.
The vote, the fourth since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, has already
been delayed twice this year.
Government forces and Taliban have been engaged in heavy exchanges across
the nation, with the militants vowing to continue fighting and make the US
regret walking away from talks.
Russia has been trying to influence the peace negotiations and staged two
meetings in Moscow with Afghan political leaders at the start of the year.